FDtR Part III: The Avatar's Destiny
by The Ebyam
Summary: In the conclusion to the "From Dreams to Reality" trilogy, the gang gets separated from each other and must reunite in order to put an end to Fire Lord Ozai's plan for good.
1. Desparation

~~ Toph's earthen wall couldn't hold much longer. She dug her feet deeper into the stone floor of the Western Air Temple as blasts of fire continued to bombard her.

"Sokka, if you've got a plan, now would be the time to tell us!" she growled between gritted teeth.

Sokka was standing above Suki, whom Katara was healing with what little water she had left. The wound in the warrior's shoulder was still fresh, and Katara was unsure if she could heal it. If it was possible, Suki was sweating more than Toph. Sokka's mind was completely focused on his injured love. He couldn't bring himself to think of another plan. His original plan had gotten Suki wounded after all.

"Where the hell are Aang and Zuko?" he exclaimed. "They should have been here ages ago!"

"They're not coming back!" Toph shouted as she slid another few inches backwards. "They either bailed or they're dead!"

At this point, Katara could take no more. While still healing Suki, she turned her head to the young girl.

"How dare you! After everything Aang's done for us you just automatically assume that he's abandoned us or he's been killed? What is wrong with you Toph?"

"Maybe I'm just being realistic sugar queen! Your boyfriend isn't here! Where is he Katara? Where?"

"I don't know!" Katara cried, tears streaming down her face. The water she was bending splashed all over the floor and she slumped against the wall. Suki managed to sit up against the wall and took Katara's hand in hers. Katara gasped and tried to re-gather the water from the floor. "I-I'm sorry Suki."

Suki laughed weakly.

"It's fine Katara. We're going to have to get out of here anyways, right Sokka?"

Sokka was biting his nails, lost in thought, he barely heard her, simply grunting and shaking his head. Then he looked up and said something under his breath. When Katara questioned him, he repeated it.

"Appa! Momo! They're out there with the Fire Nation!"

The three girls all thought about the animals that were trapped outside the relative safety of the tiny room. Toph momentarily let her guard down, and that was all it took. One more blast from outside shattered what was left of her wall and she slammed against the wall behind her, hard. From the combination of holding the wall and the final blast, she finally fell into unconsciousness. Fire Nation soldiers streamed into the room, with firebenders following close behind. Sokka stood alone in the room, brandishing his boomerang in one hand and his sword in the other.

"Bring it on." he grunted.

The enemies attacked, and Sokka threw his boomerang. It arched around the guards and struck three soldiers in the back of the skull before being caught by a fourth and thrown to the floor. Sokka's sword clashed with another soldier, but a knee to his stomach brought the water tribe boy to his knees. A familiar voice got down in front of him. As Sokka's vision blurred, the man started to speak.

"I know you helped your sister and your girlfriend escape Sokka. I'm going to do unspeakable things to you and your friend until you tell me where they went. The Fire Lord doesn't want any chance of interference with his final plan."

Someone struck him on the back of the head with the hilt of his sword and he finally collapsed.

~~ A group of six carried a gilded rectangular box up the isle to the throne of the Fire Lord. Surrounded by a wall of flames, Ozai stepped down the long series of steps and reached the floor. He nodded and the six robed figures placed it on the ground and bowed, stepping backwards. The most powerful firebender in the world stepped forward and slowly opened the box. He got a glimpse of the inside and his eyes opened wide. His fists clenched in rage and an enormous tower of flame bellowed out of his mouth.

"What is the meaning of this atrocity?" he screamed.

One of the figures timidly stepped forward to offer an explination.

"I-I'm so sorry for your loss your lordship. We f-found her b-body in a canyon along with her war balloon."

"My daughter, my only child, is dead. How do you think I feel about this?"

Another one of the robed figures spoke up.

"My lord, what about your son, Zuko?"

The room was silent, and the tension was thick in the air. The Fire Lord approached him and got face to face with the elderly man, whose eyes were clenched with fear.

"I have no son." Ozai calmly replied. He cracked his knuckles and blasted him with an enormous fireball that quickly consumed him. In seconds the old man had been reduced to a pile of ashes. "Clean this up! I need to mourn the loss of my child!"

The five remaining men bowed again and quickly cleaned up the remains of the sixth, exiting the throne room.

"My dear sweet Azula…you shall be avenged! I swear that whoever did this to you will suffer a horrible agonizing-" Ozai stopped as he noticed something clutched in Azula's left hand. After picking it up and examining it, he realized it was a lock of raven black hair that could have only come from one person. "Zuko."

**Author's Note: Hey I'm back…again! Hurray? After another year hiatus the fans of this series have probably moved on but hey whatever. Anyways, if you didn't understand this, you should probably read the first two parts of the story. More chapters coming soon!**


	2. Backtracking

~~ The two fire nation guards saluted the warden as he strode by them. He had both hands behind his back, and was walking calmly down the corridor with an evil grin on his face. He stopped at an ordinary looking cell between two more guards who saluted as well. He nodded his head as they opened the door to admit him in, where four guards stood in each corner of the dimly lit room. In the center, was an iron chair, its occupant, a barely conscious man whose head hung low.

"I haven't had the pleasure of a good torture in quite some time. Thank you for giving me the pleasure boy." the warden said, his smirk never leaving his face. "When you broke your friend out of my prison I thought I would never get the chance to pay you back. Then lo and behold, you're delivered right to me! I'm the luckiest warden in the Fire Nation."

Sokka looked up, his left eye swollen shut. Various cuts and bruises were scattered on his face and his lower lip was split.

"Now, you're going to tell me where your girlfriend and your sister went. Did they go to find the Avatar and the prince?"

Sokka said nothing, and he was rewarded with a swift punch to the temple by the warden.

"No one has ever escaped from the Boiling Rock! I'm going to keep it that way by getting your acrobatic little girlfriend back in her cell, dead or alive!"

Sokka continued to remain silent, and the warden regained his composure.

"Fine. I'm sure if you won't talk, we can get some answers out of that earthbender girl."

At the mention of Toph, Sokka finally broke his silence.

"No! Leave her alone! She has nothing to do with this!"

"Oh no my friend, she has everything to do with this. She assisted in your little jailbreak there. Apparently I didn't throw that spear hard enough the last time."

Another smirk and the warden was gone. Sokka shouted out as the guards continued their rough treatment. His screams echoed throughout the prison, and they reached the ears of the young earthbender, who had been suspended upside-down by ropes attached to her ankles. She was about five feet above the stone floors, and without any contact with any surface, she had no idea what was going on. She heard a heavy iron open and slam in front of her.

"Hello Toph. That is your name, correct?" a familiar voice inquired.

"Hey, you're that warden guy aren't you?" the girl asked.

"The one and only. You assisted in the one and only prison break to ever happen in the Boiling Rock. Does that make you happy?"

"Damn right it does!" Toph exclaimed

The warden snapped his fingers and two guards at opposite ends of the room lowered the rope holding Toph several feet, so her upper body was submerged into a large tank of water. She thrashed around for a bit before the warden nodded to signal the two men to raise her up again. She gasped and stuttered for breath.

"You bastard! What the hell is wrong with you!"

"Such a mouth on you little girl. I don't think you've learned your lesson yet."

"No! No wait!"

Toph's pleading was cut off as she was dunked again, this time for twice as long. Once she was pulled out, she spit a stream of water onto the floor and struggled against the ropes that held her wrists behind her.

"What's the matter Toph? Useless without any earth to bend?"

Toph gritted her teeth in rage.

"As soon as I get down from here I'm going to kick your-"

Another dunking effectively silenced the girl.

"Now Toph, be reasonable. If you tell me where your friends are, then I'll let you and your boyfriend go."

"Sokka's not my boyfriend!" Toph exclaimed.

"That's the least of your worries right now girl."

Toph sighed as she was lowered into the water again.

~~ Katara and Suki had escaped onto Appa, who had been waiting for them behind the Western Air Temple when they escaped. Momo was unfortunately nowhere to be found, and they had lost him along with Sokka and Toph. They were now on their way back to the campsite, the last place they had seen Aang and Zuko over three days ago. Suki stretched her sore shoulder and peered over the edge of the saddle.

"Do you remember exactly where the camp was Katara?" she asked.

"Not exactly, but it shouldn't be too hard to find. I mean that army knocked down half the forest to get to us."

"Wait, what's that?" Suki pointed ahead to a column of smoke that was rising from the horizon.

"That's where we're going." Katara said with determination.

They touched down in a scorched crater in the center of the forest. The girls hopped off the bison and started searching the ground. Katara picked up the remnants of the pot she was using to prepare dinner before they were forced to leave.

"This is definitely the place." she said, placing it back on the ground. "It looks like this is where most of the fighting happened."

Suki strode a little ways away from the camp until she reached a series of trees that were blackened only on one side.

"I think they went this way!" she called.

They girls got back on Appa and took off into the sky and flew off, following the trail of burnt trees, some of which were still ablaze.

"I wonder if they're still…" Katara started, but Suki stopped her by putting her arm around her.

"They're going to be fine. Just you wait. I am kind of curious as to what happened here though."

**3 Days Earlier**

~~ The trees in front of Aang and Zuko collapsed, and a wall of fire came at them. Aang countered with a wall of air, tossing the blaze into several nearby trees. A wave of soldiers poured out of the trees, and they heard one shout something about the Avatar, but they were too engrossed in the battle to pay any attention to one voice.

Zuko tripped one of the guards who went flying back into another. Another jumped over the entangled bodies and swung his blade at the prince, who blocked it with his bracer and blasted a fireball into the man's stomach. He did a backflip, fire spewing out of his feet and scorching a dozen soldiers.

Meanwhile, Aang was using his staff to combat another group. He stomped the ground, producing a series of medium-sized stones in a circle around him, which he hit like baseballs into the crowd. The men went flying back, but more soldiers took their place.

"Aang, there's too many of them!" Zuko called out as he flipped over another bunch of fireballs.

"We haven't given them enough time! Just hold out a little bit longer!" Aang replied. That's when an enormous blast of fire hit the ground right in front of them, sending Aang flying back along with a large group of firebenders.

"Aang!" Zuko called.

He turned to see the source of the blast, only to find half a dozen tanks waiting for him. They fired their blasts consecutively, the soldiers managing to back away before they could be as unlucky as their companions. Zuko rolled quickly down the line of enemies until he reached a group that was circled around Aang. A quick fireball to their backs blasted a hole in the wall they had formed around him, which Zuko rolled into. He helped the young Avatar to his feet and got into his stance once more.

"Aang, if we don't make it, I want to apologize again for all the trouble I caused you and your friends. If I had known then what I know now, then I would have helped you right from the start. Maybe then, we wouldn't be in this mess."

"Apology accepted Zuko. Now, you might want to get a little closer to me."

Zuko gave him a confused stare, but obeyed, placing his back against Aang's. Aang then pounded the ground with his fist, making the ground lift out from under them and propel the two into the forest, where they landed squarely on their feet. After noticing Zuko's look of bewilderment, Aang smirked.

"It's a little trick I learned from Toph. Now come on, I think we've held them off long enough."

As if to punctuate Aang's words, more fireballs scorched the trees behind them, and the two took off running, just as rain started to fall.

~~ After flying for several minutes, the trail finally stopped at a riverbed. The girls touched down and set about searching for clues. They found several pieces of Fire Nation armor and weapons, and a spot where it looked as if the bank had simply vanished.

"This is definitely the work of Aang's waterbending." Katara said with a smile. "They must have crossed the river and used it as a way to stop the army from advancing! But where did they go from there?"

Suki had stooped down to examine the muddy shore.

"Does this about match Aang's feet?" she asked.

After a quick examination, Katara nodded.

"They went off down this way. It looks like it rained not long after their battle started."

"Great! Let's find them so we can get Sokka and Toph back too!"

"Wait." Suki said. "There's…blood here."

The girls looked ahead and saw that small puddles of dried blood were scattered every so often in the grass.

"Who was bleeding though?" Suki wondered aloud.

"I don't want to think about it Suki, let's just go before my imagination gets the best of me." Katara groaned.

They returned to Appa and set off once more above the treetops, searching for their friends.

~~ The warden returned to his room, satisfied. His torture of the prisoners had paid off. Each of them had revealed small chunks of information that could be pieced together to determine a general area in which to search for the rest of their little group. He undressed down to his undergarments and laid down in his large bed, with sheets and pillows laced with the finest satin in the Fire Nation and placed his face mask over his eyes to settle in for a long, undisturbed night of sleep.

Unfortunately for him, this was not to be. A shadowy figure crept up to the warden's bed less than an hour later and slowly removed one of the pillows from next to his head. Without hesitation, they placed it firmly over the man's face, effectively muffling all noise as the warden was suffocated.

He struggled as best as he could, but his strength could not quite match up to the strength of his assailant. In less than thirty seconds, the warden was dead. His killer calmly placed the pillow next to the body and backed towards the one small window in the room, perching for a split second to look at their handiwork before plummeting out of sight.


	3. Old Friends, New Enemies

~~ Katara followed the trail into the forest, assisted by the puddles of blood at various intervals. Suki followed above on Appa's back. Finally, the trail of blood stopped at the bottom of a large tree, where a trail of blood ran down the bark and puddled at the roots. Appa touched down in a nearby clearing and Suki ran over to Katara. She knelt down to examine it.

"This blood's definitely been here for at least two days." she said solemnly. "I can't tell whose it is though."

Katara slumped against the tree herself and put her face in her hands.

"So what you're saying is that the trail's cold again?"

After looking around for a short time, Suki spoke up.

"Not exactly. It looks like they split up here. Whoever was bleeding went north." Suki pointed northwards to emphasize her point. "And the other person went west."

"Why would they split up? What could they possible gain from that?"

"I'm not sure." Suki said as she stood up. She winced as her shoulder throbbed, but shrugged off Katara's offer of assistance. "I think we should split up as well."

Katara gave her a confused glance.

"Suki, I want to find them just as much as you do, but splitting up isn't the way to do it. Anyways, you're injured!"

"Katara, don't talk like that. I'm a big girl, and I can take care of myself. Finding Aang and Zuko is our first priority."

"I agree, but we're staying together to do it. End of story."

Suki sighed, knowing that there was no way of changing Katara's mind once it was made up.

"Fine, but which path should we follow?"

"I say we go down the trail with blood. Whoever was wounded will need our help first."

Suki agreed and the girls climbed back onto the bison once more and they took off following the trail of blood.

**3 Days Earlier…**

~~ Aang and Zuko burst through the trees and arrived at the river bank, where both of the boys paused to catch their breath. They could only rest for a few moments though, as they both heard the cracking and burning of trees behind them. They exchanged a glance and a quick nod as they started to cross the ice cold river. Steam rose from around the prince as he waded through the waist deep water.

"Aang, c-can we m-move a little f-faster? C-cold water doesn't exactly agree with m-me."

Aang laughed as they finally reached the opposite bank of the river, steam continuing to rise of Zuko's body.

"Aang, you should go. Use your glider and get out of here. Get to the Western Air Temple with the others. I'll turn myself in to buy you some time."

"No Zuko." Aang said quickly. "You're part of the team now. No one gets left behind."

Zuko smiled. He'd never felt like part of a team before. More noises from the forest snapped him back to reality as he saw the fire nation army crash through the trees in front of them. Aang stopped him from advancing and handed him his staff. Then, the boy grounded himself and closed his eyes, making rapid circles with his arms.

By this time, the army was using the tanks as boats to cross the river, and they had made it over halfway across. That's when Aang's motions started to make the current go faster. Another couple of seconds and progressively larger waves started to form. At this point, some of the soldiers turned back to try to escape what was coming. Most of them however pressed on, and that was a mistake.

Finally, Aang created a large tidal wave that crashed down over the tanks, pushing most of the soldiers into the ice cold water and flipping many of the tanks. He created another wave that moved in the opposite direction, effectively quelling their resistance and pushing them further downstream. Since their commanding officer had been washed away, the remaining soldiers decided it would be best to turn the other way and run, which they promptly did, throwing down their weapons in the process.

Aang sighed and let his arms drop loosely to his side, his knees trembling. Zuko helped support him so he wouldn't fall and handed him his staff once more. Aang smiled and took it, relaxing a bit as he did so.

"That was amazing Aang!" Zuko complimented.

"Oh it was nothing." Aang said as he blushed a little bit.

Their awkward bonding session was cut short as a fireball came at them from behind. Shocked, the boys turned around to see shards of sharpened metal flying their way. Zuko pushed Aang out of the way, getting struck by them himself. Three of them tore at his sides, one skimmed his ankle, and the fifth embedded itself into his left thigh. The prince gasped in pain as he fell backwards.

Aang went on the offense, tossing a ball of air in the direction where the shards originated. After nothing happened, Aang saw something out of the corner of his eye. It looked like a Fire Nation soldier, but different. He had a black skintight outfit similar to Zuko's Blue Spirit outfit, but different at the same time. Aang was still pondering when more shards came his way. Thanks to his quick reflexes, the airbender was able to jump over them and land quickly, slamming his staff into the ground and creating an air shockwave that flew towards their assailant, who promptly dodged it.

Their battle waged on for several minutes, neither of them landing any blows on the other, but each coming close. Finally, they paused to recuperate, and the attacker gave Aang a quick nod, which he pondered for a second before a steel net hit him in the side and pinned him to a tree. When he hit it, he yelped in pain as one of the shards of metal pierced his lower back. He could feel his own blood running down, and the grinding of bark on his wound didn't help.

Zuko sat up and looked around as a group of four more men dressed similarly to the assailant approached him. He struggled for a short time before finally being bested, his ankles and wrists being bound behind him. When the gang turned to collect their true prize, they noticed that the net had been torn in two, and the Avatar was gone.

"So much for your big bounty!" Zuko said with a smirk. He was silenced by a kick to one of the shards still in his leg.

"Sir, the Avatar?" one of them said gruffly.

Their leader, the one who had wounded Zuko and attacked Aang, said nothing, but held out his hand to signal them to stop. He walked over to the tree and knelt down, following the trail of blood with his eyes. He motioned to the others and they lifted Zuko onto their shoulders, heading back into the scorched forest with the prince calling out for Aang to run.

~~ Chit Sang continued the arduous task of mopping the enormous floors of the Boiling Rock prison as he had been for the week since his latest prison break. He was really regretting staying behind to allow those kids to escape. He had been punished personally by the warden every night since the incident. He heard rumors that those same kids had been recaptured, which didn't surprise Chit Sang one bit.

Finally, he decided to check out the rumors himself. When the guards were distracted with a small conflict between two other prisoners, he slipped away and moved as quietly as he could down the hall. Eventually, he spotted two guards standing outside of one of the cells. Knowing that only "special" prisoners got this kind of treatment, he knew he was on the right track. Hearing more guards approaching, Chit Sang took cover and strained his ears to hear the conversation.

"You two need to report to the dock immediately. There's been an…incident."

The two men guarding the cell exchanged worried glances and followed the others away. Once the coast was clear, Chit Sang approached the cell and got up to the door, peering in through the slot near the top. The room was pitch black inside, but he could make out the shape of someone sitting in a chair in the center of the room. He'd been in that situation many times himself, so he knew he had to do something to help.

Originally, his plan was to get some revenge for being trapped in there longer than he had to be, but seeing the boy, obviously wounded, changed his mind. He made a small torch from his finger and cut a hole around the lock. Once it fell through, he slid the door open and went over to the injured boy, who groaned as he was shaken awake.

"I'm not telling you anything else." he mumbled.

"Did they break you already, kid? I thought you were made of tougher stuff!"

Sokka looked up to the source of the unusual, yet vaguely familiar voice to see Chit Sang towering over him.

"Hey, you're that guy who helped us escape!" Sokka exclaimed.

"Shut up kid! Jeez you're going to completely blow our cover."

He untied Sokka's hands and feet and helped him up.

"Thanks a lot um….I'm sorry I don't think I ever got your name."

"It's Chit Sang." the man said. "But we can make small talk later. Right now we have to get you out of here. Hopefully this time, you won't be coming back."

"No! I can't leave yet! Toph's still around here somewhere. I know she is."

Chit Sang sighed.

"Alright fine. We'll sacrifice a perfect opportunity to escape so we can find your friend."

Sokka smiled in response and lead the hulking firebender down the hallway where he believed they held Toph.

~~ The earthbender in question had passed out from being hung upside down for several hours. Her guards were gone as well, but her cell was easy to find; it was the one on the end of the hall that had no other cells anywhere near it. Another firebending lockpick and the door was open. Sokka rushed in, and with Chit Sang's help, laid her on the floor. Her ropes were cut, and Sokka gently shook her awake.

"Toph? It's Sokka! Come on, wake up!"

She groaned, which at least meant she was alive. Chit Sang pushed Sokka aside and lifted Toph up with one arm, putting her on his shoulder.

"Come on kid, we probably don't have much time left."

Sokka nodded and followed him out of the cell and down the hall once more.

~~ Up on top of the Boiling Rock, the gondola stopped at the dock where prisoners and supplies were unloaded. This time, the gondola held neither. Instead, a large foreboding man stepped out, flanked by even more guards, who immediately left his side and joined the ranks in front of him.

"I was shocked and saddened when I heard of the death of my good friend the Warden. I came here immediately to attend to his life's work, this prison. Also, I heard that there were some old friends of mine here that have information vital to the location of the Avatar."

The man smirked and crossed over to the line of guards, one of which looked slightly more nervous than the rest. The man took notice. He stopped right in front of him and got up close to his face.

"What's your name soldier?"

"S-shen sir."

"Shen? Why does that name sound familiar? Oh yes, weren't you involved in helping that girl and her friends to escape the prison? How is it that you're still alive? I would have thought the warden would have killed you himself."

Shen gulped and closed his eyes.

"I was w-working with the warden to prevent a b-breakout."

"Really? It seems you failed miserably at that then."

"Y-yes sir I apologize sir."

"You have a daughter, correct?"

"Yes s-sir. She just turned seven."

"Then it's her you should be apologizing to. Because she just lost her father."

"I-I'm sorry sir? I don't fol-"

Shen was cut off by a dagger landing squarely in his neck. Blood gurgled out of his mouth and the wound and he collapsed to the ground.

"Nice shot." the man said as he stared down at Shen's slowly dying body.

"Thanks Jax. I need that." a monotone female voice said from inside the gondola.

One more passenger stepped out of the shadows and stretched her long pale arms in the sunlight.

"A shame about my uncle. He's had it coming for a while though."

"Mai, your uncle's body is barely cold and you're already insulting him?" Jax said with a smirk.

"Only because he'd do the same for me." Mai replied. "Now come on. I want to talk to the Avatar's friends."

~~ Below, the gang had escaped into the yard, but with no Appa for them to call upon, how would they escape?

"You guys left quite the hole in the wall when you escaped on that bison thing." Chit Sang said as he handed Toph to Sokka. "They patched it up quick, but it's shoddy work. If you give me some cover I can take care of it."

Sokka nodded and leaned Toph against the wall as she slowly started to come to. He picked up good size stick and readied it as he heard a siren ring throughout the prison. The few prisoners that were out and about were hustled back into their cells as a multitude of guards started streaming out into the yard. Sokka noticed one of them was wielding his boomerang and sword, which motivated even more to take them down.

Then he saw something that made his blood go cold. It wasn't the large man decked out in full Fire Nation armor with a sword on his back that was half his size. No, it was the familiar bored, yet determined face of Mai, who had beaten him and his sister before. If you looked incredibly closely, you would notice the faintest hint of a smirk on her lips, but it was gone in an instant. She quickly went into action, charging ahead and reading her daggers. Sokka readied his heavy stick as Chit Sang continued work on the wall.

"Alright you bitch, bring it on." Sokka murmured.

~~ Momo awoke with a start. He looked around the unfamiliar settings until his eyes adjusted to the darkness. He found out he was in a darkened room and flew up to the ceiling to look around. The large stone door in front of him was open just a crack, and the small lemur was able to squeeze through. He scanned his surroundings and saw that he was still in the Western Air Temple, but the others were nowhere to be found.

He let out a screech, hoping to hear Appa roar in return, or even Sokka yell at him for making the noise, but there was only silence. His ears drooped and he dropped his head. He spread his arms and jumped off the edge, plummeted for a short distance, then glided back into the sky to look down from above.

After sniffing the air for a short time, he picked up a familiar smell, if ever so slightly, he smelled his bison companion. He screeched with happiness and took off towards the smell.

**Author's Note: This may be the longest single chapter I've ever written for a story. I'm impressed. Well anyways, I killed off one original character to add another…so I hope you enjoy it! **


	4. Prison Break

~~ The guard holding Sokka's boomerang tossed it clumsily and it wobbled a bit before Sokka caught it and hurled it back, striking the man along with two others and coming back to its owner. The men fell, causing other guards to stumble in their wake and fall on top of them. Mai jumped over the pile of guards and rolled before throwing two daggers towards Sokka.

He knocked one away with his stick and managed to weave to the right to avoid the other one. His ankle gave way however, and he fell to the ground. Mai a chance and charged, tossing another group of daggers. Sokka closed his eyes and prepared for the worst when he heard the sound of earth moving. When he opened them again, he say a block of stone had extended out of the ground and blocked the projectiles.

After lowering the wall, Toph leapt over Sokka and slammed her fist into the ground, creating a shockwave that Mai jumped over with ease. The rest of the guards weren't so lucky, and they tumbled to the ground. Mai was about to come down on Toph when Sokka struck her in the jaw with another skillful boomerang throw. The girl landed on her feet and was standing again in seconds, reading more daggers and rushing the two.

They leapt to the side, Toph extending the ground below her just enough to cause her to trip and fall onto her face. Sokka turned to the other guards who were starting to get back on their feet.

"How's that wall coming Chit Sang?" Sokka asked.

The firebender was done spot welding and had moved on to simply pounding the weak spot in the wall with fireballs.

"It's going to be open any minute!" he called back.

"Toph, can you handle her?" Sokka asked, motioning to Mai.

"No problem." Toph said with a smirk. "I've got some extra anger I need to work out."

Mai flipped back onto her feet as Sokka bolted towards the crowd of guards, one of which was almost twice Sokka's size and clad in full armor. He plowed into the chest of the one at the front of the pack, bringing an entire group down as well. Another one came at his side, and Sokka managed to roll out of his way. That's when he spotted the gleam of his sword at the hilt of a guard lying on his back.

Toph meanwhile, was having more trouble then she had expected. Mai was avoiding every attack she threw at her. Rock spires, waves of stone, boulders, nothing seemed to phase her. Finally, Mai got close enough to throw another series of daggers at the other girl, who swiftly dodged them. She sidestepped her attacks until she got within arm's reach, at which point she stomped the ground and made one of Mai's feet sink into the sand below until her entire ankle was submerged.

She struggled momentarily while Toph grabbed her wrists and bound them with earthen cuffs, which she fused with the floor. Finally, Mai sighed and relaxed her body, slowly working her small wrists out of the bonds.

Finally, Chit Sang broke down a decent sized hole in the wall. It did certainly look like it would be big enough for Appa, which meant that the three escapees would be able to make it through as well. He looked out onto the battlefield and saw that Toph was running to help Sokka, who had his hands full with what looked like a small battalion of guards. Chit Sang had been in this situation before, except it was always reversed. He was the one causing a distraction while the other people escaped.

He could change the pattern though. He could simply run, leaving the children to be recaptured and who knows what else. He smirked as he climbed through the hole, dropping down a few feet to the other side.

Sokka watched Chit Sang go and couldn't believe it. He shoved another guard as he headed towards his sword, but the larger one, whose name he had learned through his comrades shouting, was Jax, was running straight for him. Toph was dealing with some of the guards, but she couldn't do everything. When he was less than a foot away, he was tackled hard enough to take the wind out of him.

He came down hard on top of the boy when they landed, and Sokka heard something inside him crack. He shouted out in pain, and Jax brought him up with him when he rose. He tossed him like a rag doll, and Sokka's pain intensified as he slammed into the wall of the prison itself. Toph felt Sokka's heart rate rise, and she hurried over to where he was. That's when a stray blade flew past her leg, causing her to stumble and fall just short of him.

Mai had gotten out of her cuffs, and had managed to turn around and toss another dagger while still being held in the ground by her ankle. The blade had made its mark, and Toph and Sokka were in a bad situation. At least two dozen guards were still on their feet, and as Jax helped Mai out of the ground, the others were surrounding the teens. Sokka sighed as he rose.

"Alright Toph, if this is how we have to go out, then so be it. You ready?"

Toph backed up until she bumped into Sokka's back, she reached her hand out and took Sokka's, who squeezed it in response. Before a single blow could land, a voice rang out through the courtyard.

"Don't even think that I'm leaving without you guys!" a deep voice boomed.

Chit Sang descended upon the scene, blasting away the men as they shouted obscenities at him. Jax chuckled and advanced on the bulky firebender while Toph and Sokka bolted towards the hole. They stopped at the wall and called for Chit Sang to follow them.

"I've realized something you two." he yelled as he grappled with Jax. "This place is more of a home for me then I've ever had out there! I have friends here, and a girlfriend! You two need to live your lives! I'll be fine!"

Seconds after finishing his sentence, his hand was crushed in Jax's grip. He called out in agony and fell to his knees. Toph gasped and started to go back before Sokka grabbed her arm.

"No Toph! We have to get back to Suki and Katara and Aang…and Zuko to a lesser extent! He's buying us time!"

Jax slammed his knee into Chit Sang's face, and more guards started to head towards the hole. As they turned to leave however, they saw Mai's nearly expressionless face greeting them. Her face was adorned with the traditional cuts and bruises of battle.

"Is it true that you know where Zuko is?" she asked.

"Well, not exactly. I mean, he's on our team now but he and Aang are kind of…missing."

"Can you take me to him?" Mai inquired hopefully.

"Can you help us get out of here?" Sokka asked.

"Of course." Mai replied.

She stepped in front of the hole and brought several more knives out of her sleeves, reading them between her fingers. When the time was right she tossed them, embedding them in the chests of 8 guards, killing them instantly. The remaining guards stopped dead in their tracks and started to back away. Realizing that they had their chance to retaliate, Sokka and Toph began to head back into the prison, but Mai held her hand out.

"Go around the prison and get to the top. My balloon is waiting for us there. If I'm not there in five minutes, leave without me."

Sokka nodded and pulled Toph away and out of the hole. Meanwhile, Mai calmly strode down the rubble that had formed from the shattered pieces of the wall until she was on even ground with the guards. Jax laughed and walked away from Chit Sang's body.

"Really Mai? Your changing sides for your boyfriend? How cliché."

"Stand down Jax. That's an order." Mai said, stone-faced.

"This isn't about the pay or the glory anymore little girl. This is personal. I'm too far involved now."

"Fine then. I'll just have to take you down a peg."

Another laugh from Jax as the two walked closer to each other.

"What are you going to do Mai? Bore me to death? I don't know how any man deals with you. You're such a drag."

The whole time Jax spoke, Mai was reading her final two daggers. These shots had to count.

"Come on then girly. Let's see what you've got."

Mai's lips curled once again into the faintest hint of a smile, the most she'd ever had in one day. Then, she struck.

~~ Appa knocked trees away as he flew just above them. Suki and Katara were on opposite sides of the saddle and were peering over the edge, scanning the surroundings for any sign of Zuko or Aang. Suki pointed out a point up ahead where there was a large clearing that looked like it definitely wasn't supposed to be there. They touched down directly in the center of it and examined the ground.

Their first thought was a large fire or explosion of some kind, but it looked like the grass and trees had been ripped out of the ground by some sort of wind storm.

"This definitely looks like Aang's doing." Katara said. "We might be getting close to finding out what happened to them."

"So that means we're following Aang's trail. What about Zuko?" Suki asked.

"Once we find Aang, it'll be a whole lot easier to find Zuko. Let's keep moving."

**3 Days Earlier**

~~ Despite the stinging pain in Aang's back, he kept running through the forest, trying desperately to block out Zuko's cries of pain as their mysterious assailants took him away. Aang's foot hit a branch and he stumbled and rolled into another tree, his staff hitting a branch about eight feet away from him. As he clambered to retrieve it, another net caught his ankle and tripped him once more.

The leader of the group had followed him, staying just out of the Avatar's field of vision. As Aang crawled to his staff, the man chuckled and yanked on the cable that attached the net to his ankle. He slid for a few moments before rolling over and sending a blast of air at his attacker, who swiftly dodged it, dropping the cable in the process. Aang took the opportunity to reach down and release himself from the net, back-flipping into a standing position and cringing a little as his wound twitched.

The man readied yet another net, but Aang spun his staff as quickly as he could, then slammed it into the ground. It blasted the attacker into a tree and tossed the net miles away. Finally, the two were face to face. The attacker had no more weapons hidden up his sleeves. Aang was breathing hard as he readied his staff for battle. The man smirked, but under his mask, Aang was none the wiser. Then, he charged, throwing a fireball that startled the boy who just barely managed to duck under it. He had forgotten that the man was also a firebender.

A few more fire and air balls flew back and forth before Aang had had enough. Being unable to activate the Avatar State, he had to muster up all his power for one blow that would hopefully finish him off. After he was charged at again, Aang leapt several feet into the air and extended the glider from his staff, circling high above the battlefield. He continued flying in circles, gathering clouds and air up into what looked like a large tornado. It got larger, and the trees below started to get pulled upwards towards the funnel. The man sighed and grabbed hold of a nearby trunk.

"I'm going to get double for this kid, mark my words."

Eventually, the bark he was holding onto ripped away, then the tree itself followed suit. At least a dozen trees went with it, and finally, Aang relinquished his grip on the tornado, which immediately started dissipating. The trees flew in all different directions, and so did Aang's assailant. Exhausted, the airbender touched down and fell to his knees, dropping his staff as he did so.

As he laid his head down against a pile of leaves he had stirred up, he thought to himself:

"What's the harm of laying down for a few minutes?"

He yawned and stretched out before shutting his eyes and dozing off. He had no idea that a little boy had been watching Aang since he saw the tornado form. He ran out of the forest and approached the unconscious Avatar, tapping him with his foot and bolting to hide behind a tree. After a few minutes of repeated prodding and running, he was assured that Aang was asleep. With some difficulty, he managed to lift Aang into his rickety wheelbarrow that he had been using to collect firewood, and he pushed him away.

~~ An enormous, extravagant zeppelin emblazoned with the Fire Nation insignia was heading west. On its main deck, stood the Fire Lord. The wind blew through his hair, and he closed his eyes, for a second wondering what it would be like to control the very breeze. His thoughts were interrupted by a soldier approaching him.

"Sir, we just received more news. A group of bounty hunters have captured your son and they wish to return him for his bounty."

Ozai smiled at the news of his sons capture.

"Turn us around. I want to oversee this myself."

"Sir? What about the situation at the Boiling Rock? I thought you wanted to oversee that as well."

"I heard that Azula's friend, the dagger girl, is there."

"Miss Mai? Yes, she should have arrived a short time ago."

"I believe she can handle everything that the Avatar's friends can hand out."

"Alright sir I'll let the captain know."

As the soldier left, Ozai resumed his thoughts, letting himself be surrounded by the air.


	5. A Good Night's Sleep

~~ Sokka stopped at the shore of the boiling lake, Toph following suit.

"Why are we stopppng?" she asked.

"Oh no reason really." Sokka replied. "There's just a huge lake of boiling hot water between us and our escape balloon."

Toph shrugged and pounded the ground, causing an earthen walkway to extend from one end of the shore to the other. Sokka's jaw dropped as Toph casually started walking across.

"What would you guys do without me?" Toph said with a smirk as Sokka followed her across.

Once they reached the other end, it was a simple matter to scale the wall with a platform that Toph used as a makeshift elevator. As they reached the top, Sokka saw the red war balloon come into view. They climbed off the platform and Toph destroyed it before following Sokka down the hill. Sokka ran towards the balloon, but Toph grabbed him and pulled him behind a large rock.

"Sokka there's people on that balloon! I doubt they're just going to let us hitch a ride! We have to wait for Mai!"

Sokka agreed and they crouched down to wait for their opportunity.

~~ "Oh no, smoke!" Katara gasped as she pointed out the column rising out of the woods in front of them.

The girls were rightfully worried until they noticed that the smoke was coming from a small cottage in the midst of another clearing.

"Somebody lives out here in the middle of nowhere?" Suki inquired.

"That's what it looks like. We should stop there and ask if they've seen Aang."

They landed Appa a good distance away from the house and walked there, wondering during the short journey what awaited them inside the house. Would there be a kindly old woman, or perhaps Fire Nation general on vacation? Whatever the case, they would know soon enough. Katara knocked three times on the wooden door. After a few moments, it opened to reveal a woman who looked as if she was only about ten years older than the girls.

"Hello mam, sorry to bother you, but we're looking for a friend of ours and we were wondering if you've seen him." Katara asked.

The woman smiled and invited them inside the house. After exchanging a quick glance, they cautiously accepted. The inside of the house was warm and brightly lit, thanks to a fireplace that was burning brightly. A little boy sat in front of it, playing with stuffed ostrich-horse. He either didn't notice the girls come in, or was trying hard to ignore them.

"My son found a boy in the forest and managed to bring him up to the house. He was kind of short and a little on the pale side."

"That sounds right." Katara said, smiling at Suki. "Do you know where he is now?"

The woman sighed and looked over to her son, who was now staring into the fire.

"Maybe you two should sit down, it's kind of a long story."

Katara didn't like the sound of that, but she sat in a chair across from the woman at their table, Suki sitting next to her. Then the woman began.

"Like I said, my son found the boy in the forest. He brought him here about three days ago…"

**3 Days Earlier**

~~ The door to the small shack burst open and a little boy came running in.

"Momma momma momma!" he cried excitedly.

His mother, who was preparing their dinner, laughed and set down her spoon and knelt down to eye level with her son.

"What's got you so excited Tarin?" she asked.

"Momma I was in the woods, and I was looking for firewood like you said, and then I saw this guy and this other guy, and they started fighting, and there was fire, and the one guy was like WHOOSH and the other guy was like AHHHHHH and it was so cool! Then the guy fell down and fell asleep I picked him up and now he's outside."

The woman was a little surprised. She knew her son had an active imagination, but this was a bit much even for him. So she followed him outside and was taken aback when she saw that there was indeed a boy in her son's wheelbarrow. He was unconscious, and she lifted him up into her arms, bringing him inside and placing him on a mat near the fireplace.

He had a cloth hat on his forehead, and she removed it to feel for his temperature, then gasped again. The bright blue arrow on his forehead clearly identified him as the Avatar, and as a citizen of the Fire Nation, it was her duty to turn him in.

~~ Katara felt like she had taken a blow to the gut. Had she turned him in? Was Aang once again in the custody of the Fire Nation? Seemingly noticing Katara's fear, the woman comforted her.

"Don't worry, I didn't hand him over. That may sound odd considering that I'm the wife of a Fire Nation soldier, but my husband and I aren't one to blindly follow the Fire Lord. We don't agree with many of his decisions, including trying to find and kill a child, Avatar or not."

Katara breathed a sigh of relief.

"If you didn't turn him over, then where is he now?" Suki asked.

"Don't worry sweetie, I'll get there."

~~ The woman felt Aang's forehead and noticed his temperature was no higher than normal. He appeared to only be sleeping.

"He had this with him too!" her son said, bringing in Aang's staff.

"Put that in the corner honey." she said as she retrieved a wet cloth to put on Aang's forehead, then rose to finish dinner.

"Is he ok momma?" Tarin asked.

"He'll be fine. He just needs a good night's sleep. Speaking of which, shouldn't you be washing up for dinner and bed?"

Tarin nodded and headed out to the small pond behind the house, leaving his mother alone with her thoughts.

~~ A knock at the door interrupted her story. She motioned for the girls to hide while she peered out the window to see who was there.

"It's my husband!" she exclaimed.

Tarin's head perked up and he quickly got to his feet. His mother opened the door and the family embraced each other for a while before they began to speak.

"I was so worried about you two." the man said. "I heard there was some sort of commotion here with the Avatar? What happened?"

His wife motioned to the girls and they emerged from their hiding spots.

"Cal, these are the Avatar's friends." She paused for a moment. "I'm sorry I never got your names."

"My name is Katara, and this is Suki. You have a lovely family sir."

"Thanks." Cal said with a smile. "Well you've already met my son Tarin and my wife Lynn. My name's Cal. I'm sorry about your friend."

"Sorry?" Suki inquired. "What are you sorry about?"

Lynn sighed.

"I was telling them what happened when you got here."

"Oh well don't let me stop you. I'll listen in too." Cal replied.

"Me too!" Tarin said. It was the first thing he had said since the girls arrived.

"No Tarin, this isn't a story you should hear. Why don't you go outside and get some-"

"No! I wanna stay here with dad!" Tarin shouted.

Suki walked over to the child and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Come on Tarin, why don't I take you outside and show you some cool fighting moves!"

Tarin's eyes lit up and he nodded and bolted out the door, Suki following behind him.

"You can fill me in later." she said to Katara as she went out the door.

Katara nodded and sat at the table with Lynn and Cal as Lynn continued her story.

"Nothing eventful happened for the rest of that night, so I suppose I can just skip ahead to the next day."

**2 Days Earlier**

~~ Aang woke when the sun had barely started to rise on the horizon. After taking a moment to gather his surroundings, he noticed his staff in the corner of the room. He rose, careful not to disturb the boy across from him or the woman in the bed, and retrieved his staff. He opened the door as quietly as he could and stepped out into the cool twilight air.

"I was asleep all night. Zuko could be miles away by now!" he said to himself.

He spun his glider and readied himself to leave when he was stopped by a small hand tugging on his sleeve.

"Where are you going Mr. Avatar?" the boy asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Uh…I've got to go do…stuff…" Aang replied, realizing his arrow was completely exposed on his head.

"Your hat's inside. My mom took it off to take your temperature. That's how she does it."

Lynn opened the door to see who her son was speaking to and saw the Avatar ready to leave.

"Oh you don't have to go so soon do you?" she asked.

"I really should." Aang replied. "I need to find my friends. Thank you for helping me."

"Why don't I make some breakfast before you leave." Lynn said. "You don't need to go into battle on an empty stomach."

She smiled, and Aang returned the favor. His stomach growled, and he suddenly realized how long it had been since he had eaten.

"Alright I guess. Let's eat!"

~~ "So you ate breakfast with Aang?" Suki asked the boy as he practiced some of the simple punches that she had shown him.

"Yep! It was awesome! He ate really fast!" Tarin replied.

He had been explaining the story to Suki just as his mother was doing inside, only his version was a little harder to understand as his words often merged into an unrecognizable mesh.

"That sounds like our Aang." Suki replied.

She walked behind the boy and put her hands on his wrists, straightening his form and correcting his posture. Tarin blushed in response to the contact, allowing her to do what she needed.

"You've got it Tarin! Great job! You'll be a warrior in no time!"

Tarin beamed and threw a few more punches.

"So what happened next?" Suki asked, sitting on a nearby stump.

"Oh yeah!" the boy replied. "So after breakfast-"

~~ Aang belched and quickly covered his mouth, blushing. Tarin burst out laughing, nearly falling out of his chair.

"Don't worry about it. I hear it all the time with this one." Lynn said with a smile.

"I don't know why we're supposed to hate you Aang! You're awesome!" Tarin said.

"Tarin!" Lynn exclaimed.

"No no it's fine." Aang replied. "I take that as a compliment. There's a lot more friendly people in the Fire Nation then I thought."

There was a sudden knock at the door, and Lynn and Aang froze. Tarin however, perked up.

"Do you think dad is back?" he asked.

His mother shushed him and quickly went over to the door. She turned to tell Aang to hide, but he was already gone, Tarin pointing to the back door. Lynn peered out the window to see what looked like a small troop of soldiers at her front door.

"Tarin, get out behind the house and don't come back in until I tell you to ok?"

Tarin nodded and went out the back door. Once he was gone, Lynn took a deep breath and opened the door.

"Good morning miss." the general said. "So sorry to disturb you at such an early hour but we're looking for a fugitive."

"A fugitive around here? I'm sorry but I haven't seen anyone in these parts in quite a while."

"Oh really? I hope you won't mind if we come in and take a look around."

Lynn opened the door fully and allowed the squad of ten or so men inside. Tarin was watching things unfold through a small crack in the back door.

The general looked around, stopping to pick up a hat that was lying near the fireplace.

"And who does this belong to?" he asked.

"My son." Lynn replied calmly.

"And where is your son now?"

"I sent him out to collect wood for the fire."

"This early?"

"It gets cold in here relatively quickly."

The man smirked and tossed the hat aside.

"What about this table? It's set for three. You, your son, and who else?"

"My husband." Lynn replied. She instantly regretted this, and the general noticed a change in her demeanor.

"Your husband? You mean Cal? Isn't he stationed in the Earth Kingdom right now?"

Lynn tried to come up with a response, but she was interrupted by the back door being kicked open. Another soldier entered, holding a squirming Tarin by the back of his shirt. He tossed the boy to the floor and as he was getting up, the general grabbed picked him back up.

"Now, I know your lying to me Lynn. Bad things happen to people who lie to me."

He snapped his fingers and a small fireball materialized in his hand and levitated there for a second before it was extinguished.

"Do you still wish to stick by that story?"

Tarin suddenly lashed out and kicked the general in the knee. He dropped the boy with a cry of mixed surprise and slight pain. Tarin ran over to his mother and embraced her, leaving the man who was holding him enraged. He summoned another fireball and was about to throw when he was suddenly doused with water. He was soaked from head to toe, and he turned to see the culprit.

Aang stood behind the house, moving a stream of water in his hands from the nearby pond.

"It's the Avatar! Get him! Go! Attack!"

The soldiers ran outside, knocking furniture around as they went. Without a word, the general followed suit, slamming the door behind him. Tarin ran to the back window, looking at the battle unfolding despite his mother's protests.

He saw Aang knocking some of the soldiers away with bursts of air, splashing them with water, or striking them with stones. Finally, he spun his staff around to expose the glider, and with a quick smile and wave to Tarin, he took off into the air and flew down the nearby path. The soldiers gathered themselves and followed.

"Where's Aang going?" Tarin asked.

Lynn smiled as she stood behind her son.

"He's leading them away from us sweetie."

"Will he be ok?"

"I think so. It looks like he can take care of himself."

Tarin went over to the fire and picked up Aang's discarded hat, placing it on his head.

"I'll hold on to this for him until he comes back!"

"That sounds like a plan." Lynn replied.

~~ "And that was the last time we saw him." Lynn said as she finished her story.

Katara thought for a moment.

"So you said he went west?" she asked.

"That's right. I hope that helped."

"You helped more than you know. Thank you so much." Katara said as she rose and went to the door. "We'd better get going. We've got a lot of ground to cover."

"Come back any time Katara. That goes for Aang too. Tarin would love to see him again."

"I'll let him know when I see him. Thanks again!"

~~ "-and then he flew away."

Tarin finished his story as well, and Suki was relieved just as Katara had been.

"Thanks for all your help Tarin. You're going to be a great warrior someday. You'll make your dad proud."

Tarin blushed as Suki patted his head.

"Come on Suki, we've got to go after Aang!" Katara said as she rounded the corner of the house.

Tarin's shoulder's sank as he slumped on the ground.

"Do you guys really have to go?"

Suki bent down and looked into his eyes.

"Tarin, I promise that we'll come back to visit you once we find Aang. You stay here until we come back so you can protect your house with your dad. Show him those moves I taught you!"

Tarin nodded, but as Suki turned to leave with Katara he stopped them and ran into the house. He immerged from the house a little while later holding Aang's hat.

"Here. Give this back to Aang. Tell him it's from Tarin!"

Suki took the hat and thanked the boy by giving him a kiss on his cheek. The boy instantly turned scarlet and looked down.

"Thanks again Tarin. We'll be back!"

Tarin nodded and headed back towards his house as the girls walked into the forest to where Appa was sitting.

"That little boy was so cute!" Suki said. "Did you see the way he blushed? Adorable!"

"Is my brother going to have some competition?" Katara said with a smirk.

Suki pushed her and laughed. Katara pushed her back, and Suki fell to the ground. After she didn't get up for a little while, Katara bent down to her.

"Oh come on Suki I didn't push you that hard."

She shook her, but there was no response. Starting to get a little worried, she lifted Suki's head. That's when she spotted the dart in her neck. She was instantly on guard, rising up and opening her pouch of water and readying a thin stream of water. Another dart flew by her head and Katara turned around and tossed a frozen dart of her own into a bush. She heard a grunt from the shrubbery and it wasn't long before three more people dropped out of the trees.

They were wearing all black clothing, and they all had masks on. One of them bent down to grab Suki's immobile body, but Katara whipped him away. The other two went to grab her arms, but she ducked and froze their hands together in mid-air. They struggled to free themselves as Katara focused on the third.

He kicked at the girl, but she ducked under him and wrapped a water whip around his grounded leg, yanking it out from under him. He fell to the ground, and she quickly froze his head to the ground. She used the last of her water to make a wave that froze the other two to a nearby tree. While the men fought against the ice, Katara lifted Suki up and supported her limp body, heading towards Appa.

They reached the bison's clearing, and Appa roared his approval.

"Appa shush! We have to get out of here quick!"

Appa picked up Suki with his mouth and placed her gently in his saddle, while Katara pulled some water from the nearby river and placed it in her pouch. She climbed into the saddle herself and called out the traditional yip yip, and Appa lifted off. Katara was fixing the loose strap on the side when suddenly, a shard of metal flew up and sliced her belt. Her water pouch slipped off her waist and plummeted to the ground.

As she went to grab it, she lost her footing and slipped off the saddle, tumbling towards the ground. Appa turned around and started to go back when a fireball flew in front of his face. He roared angrily, remembering the patches of burnt fur on his body. Two of the attackers kept the bison at bay with fireballs while a third caught Katara in a net that landed her in the branches of a tree.

The men grabbed the net and started to ready an enormous one for Appa.

"Appa, go! Yip yip! Get out of here!" Katara screamed.

Another roar from Appa and he rose just far enough for the net to miss him. He stared right at Katara, then let out a sad groan and flew off over the trees. Katara's eyes started to water as the attackers lifted her net up and took her deeper into the forest. She noticed one of them pick up her water pouch, emptying it on the ground and tossing it into the river.

She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to think on the bright side. Suki and Appa were safe. They were heading towards Aang. They would come back for her once they found him…if they found him.

~~ The room Zuko had been in for three days was pitch black. He was hungry, he was tired, and he was trapped. His arms and legs were bound, and he had a metal mask over the lower part of his face, so firebending was out of the question. The door in front of him was opened and one of his captors came in.

"You have a visitor Zuko." he said in a deep gravelly voice.

Zuko looked up, squinting against the faint light coming in from outside.

"Your father wants to have a word with you."

Zuko held his breath as Ozai entered the room.

"Thank you. You may go. I wish to speak with my son in private."

The man bowed and exited the room, shutting the door behind him. Once again, it was pitch black. Ozai snapped his fingers and a flame appeared in his hand.

"So Zuko, have you seen your sister around lately?"


	6. Helpless

~~ Sokka was awoken by a sharp punch in his shoulder. He was about to pester Toph for hitting him, but she covered his mouth with her hand, pointing behind them. The men who were guarding the balloon were firing it up, reading it for take off.

"Are they leaving?" Toph asked in a hushed tone.

"It looks like it. Come on, we have to get in there and stop them." Sokka whispered as he rose. He reached for his sword and gasped as he realized he had left in the sheath of the guard down in the prison. He cursed his stupidity under his breath, but Toph spoke up again.

"Wait, someone else is coming."

She pulled Sokka back into the shadows of the rock and they waited until Mai arrived. She strode past their hiding spot and Sokka noticed that her face, clothes, and hands were stained with blood. She walked up to the guards and they gasped when they saw her. An elderly man approached.

"Mai, are you alright?"

Mai spoke in her usual monotone voice, and Sokka had to strain himself to hear her. Toph didn't have a problem however.

"You're all relieved of duty. I'll be taking the balloon myself now."

There was a quiet murmur among the men, and it seemed the oldest one was their voice.

"But miss Mai, where will we go?"

"You'll be able to secure transport once the riot in the prison is over. I wouldn't go down there just yet."

She turned and motioned to Sokka, whose head was peeking out from behind the rock. He and Toph emerged and approached the balloon tentatively. The guards readied their weapons, and Mai drew her daggers.

"Put down your weapons. They're with me now."

More shocked silence, but the guards let them pass uninterrupted. Toph stuck her tongue out as they walked by and boarded the balloon. The old man approached Mai as she shut the door behind her.

"Miss…I've been by your side since you were a little girl. Please…you must listen to me."

"I'm not a little girl any more am I?"

She pulled a nearby rope and a flame blasted into the balloon, lifting it off the ground.

~~ Unlike Sokka's rude awakening, Suki was brought to consciousness by the gentle soothing feeling of the wind caressing her cheeks. She slowly awoke and rose, realizing that she was in Appa's saddle.

"Katara, what happened? Did I pass out or something?" Suki inquired as she looked around.

Then she noticed the waterbender was missing. She quickly crawled around the saddle, peering over the edge to observe her surroundings. Appa was passing over what appeared to be a vast span of water, extending as far as Suki could see.

"Appa! We have to go back for Katara!"

The bison roared in response. Suki obviously didn't understand him, but by his refusing to turn around, she got the gist of it.

"Come on Appa! Please? She would do the same for one of us!"

Appa roared once more, quietly this time, and turned around, heading back towards the forest that was a tiny green speck on the horizon by now.

~~ The men who had captured Katara brought her back to their camp, where, unknown to her, Zuko sat being tortured by his father. They pulled her from the net, and after a bit of a struggle, managed to bind her hands and feet together. They approached a man who was wearing lavish garments compared to his companions. A large horned skull of some unknown animal sat on top of his head.

Katara was thrown at the man's feet, and she remained staring at the ground until someone grabbed her hair and forced her head up. She gritted her teeth through the pain and wrestled away from the rough hand that had grabbed her. The man, who Katara assumed was the leader, chuckled. He bent down and ran the back of his hand along her cheek. He was the first one of the group that she heard speak.

"Such smooth skin. It's a shame she'll simply be sold into slavery. She'll fetch us quite a bit of money though. Until tomorrow, put her in my tent. We don't want her to be cold tonight."

He pulled his hand back and motioned to the tent that was at least twice as large as the others around it. Katara's heart was pounding in her chest as she was dragged away. She was going to be a slave? And what was that part about keeping her warm? She shuddered at the thought of that man touching her again, and that's when she realized that she was deep in the middle of nowhere. Aang and Zuko were missing in action, Sokka and Toph were miles away by now, and Suki was unconscious on the back of a flying bison.

She looked over at a stone building that was separate from the tents. It had bars on the door, so she assumed it was the prison. She would rather be on the cold unforgiving stone floor then anywhere near that horrible man. As they brought her into the tent, she struggled to keep the tears at bay, but once she was tossed into the corner, they started to burst through the walls of her eyelids.

The leader poked his head through the tent flap.

"Don't worry sweetheart. I'll be there in a little while."

Katara composed herself once she realized she only had a little while to save herself. She looked around for some source of water. She saw some clay pots and jugs and got up to check them, but fell on her face. She needed to free herself from the restraints first.

~~ "So Zuko, have you seen your sister lately?" Ozai asked his son. "Oh, you can't answer me can you? Here let me help."

He undid the mask from the lower part of Zuko's face and tossed it aside.

"I'm not worried about you trying to escape or attack me. I know you're not that stupid."

Zuko said nothing, remaining committed to staring at the ground.

"Zuko, your sister is dead. I thought I should deliver this heartbreaking news to you myself."

When Zuko still said nothing, his father scoffed.

"I thought you'd be a little more distraught at this Zuko. After all, your baby sister is dead! Unless you somehow already knew. Unless you were there when she died."

"Fine! I was there ok?" Zuko shouted. His father smirked.

"I fought her on the blimp! I helped the Avatar and his friends escape! I killed Azula! And I'm not afraid of you anymore! Let me out of these chains and I'll fight you right now!"

Zuko's speech was cut off by a swift, hard punch to the gut. He tried to catch his breath, but his father grabbed his throat and pressed him against the wall. He felt his neck start to heat up and saw steam rising up. Then he started to feel a searing pain. Ozai finally relented and pulled away. Zuko's skin was red and had he left his hand there a few seconds more, it would have started to peel away.

"Honestly, I planned on killing you today Zuko. But then I realized how unfair that would be. You're hardly in any sort of good condition right now, and when I fight my son, I want a fair fight. I'll let them deal with you, and if I see you again, which I know I will, I'll kill you."

He strode casually out of the cell, leaving Zuko behind to catch his breath.

~~ The Fire Lord emerged seconds after Katara had been brought into the tent. He adjusted his robes and walked casually over to one of the soldiers.

"Thank you for holding my son for me. You may do with him what you wish. I have no more use for the boy."

He handed him a satchel filled with coins of varying shapes and sizes and walked towards into the woods towards the clearing where his guards waited with his zeppelin.

~~ It took a few moments for Zuko to realize that his mask was still off. He took a deep breath and focused his energy, then blew onto the cuff on his right wrist. It quickly heated up and cracked, allowing him to shatter it with ease. He repeated the process with his left hand cuff, and used his hands to free himself from his ankle binds. Once free, it was an easy matter to detach the steel bars and unlock the door, allowing himself to slip away unseen.

He heard a loud buzzing noise that he recognized as a zeppelin taking off. He raced into the woods after where he knew his father was, but stopped when he overheard one of the men.

"-so lucky! He always gets to try out the new slaves before we send them away! You know I heard this one's a waterbender, and a feisty one at that."

Zuko gasped. There was no way…could Katara be here as well? He turned around and waited until the men separated, then grabbing him and pulling him behind a nearby crate.

"Where is she? The waterbender?"

"H-how did you escape?" the man choked out.

"I don't think you're in a position to ask questions here." Zuko replied, igniting a fireball in his hand.

"S-she's in the leader's t-tent. In the center of c-camp."

"Thanks." Zuko punched the guard right in the face, and he instantly fell unconscious.

~~ The leader entered his tent just as Katara used once of her hair clips to slice her ankle binds. He laughed and strode quickly across the floor. The waterbender got to her feet and quickly rolled by the leader, who reached after her. She grabbed the jug and tossed it, rather awkwardly because of her wrist bonds, at him. He caught it and was doused with water.

His demeanor had changed by this point. He approached Katara, who was backed into a corner, and it was only now that she realized how large the man really was. He stood at least two feet taller than her, and his shoulder length was more than double hers. With her hands so close together, Katara was unable to effectively waterbend, and the man grabbed her wrists and lifted her into the air, tossing her onto the bed into the middle of the room.

"Ok, enough of this ridiculous fighting. You're mine until tomorrow, and I intend to use every second I've got."

As he approached her on the bed, Katara closed her eyes and thrust her foot outwards, making direct contact with his groin. The man gasped in pain and fell onto the ground. She got up off the bed and kicked the man in the side before turning to run. Unfortunately, that second of hesitation was all he needed as he grabbed the girl's slender ankle. As she was dragged towards him again, Katara bit down on the binds on her wrists, pulling desperately.

She soon got lucky and managed to slip the binds over her thumbs. After that, it was a simple enough matter to pull them over the rest of her hands, tossing it aside and turning onto her back. She moved her hands and pulled the water off the leader's body, forming it into a bubble, and wrapping it around his head. He instantly released her leg and she got up, keeping the bubble firmly in place. She could turn and escape now, but after what he had tried to do to her, and what he had probably done to hundreds of girls before her, she felt it was her duty to finish the job.

The man was clawing at his throat, desperate for any source of oxygen. Katara felt a rage she never felt before, so the scene Zuko walked in on wasn't pretty. Katara's clothes were disheveled, one of her hair loops were down, and she seemed to be suffocating a man on the ground.

"Katara what are you doing?" he exclaimed.

Katara turned to see who had spoken, and gasped when she saw Zuko. She released her grip on the water and the bubble fell apart, leaving the leader gasping for air and she embraced Zuko.

"Zuko what are you doing here? How did you find me?"

"These guys captured me days ago. I just got out a little while ago. How did you get here?"

"It's a long story. Please, I just want to get out of here."

Suddenly, the leader was jumping after Katara with a knife in his hand. Katara picked the water up off the floor and blasted it full force into him, sending him sailing through the roof of the tent.

"Nice job!" Zuko said, patting Katara on the back.

"Thanks." Katara replied with a smile. "I want to forget this place as quickly as possible. Let's go."

They exited the tent and were immediately greeted by a group of the masked assailants that had already surrounded them.

"Got any more water left?" Zuko asked quietly as he readied his stance.

"I used it all for that one attack. I guess I was a little overenthusiastic." she replied.

"Stay behind me. And don't fall behind."

Katara nodded as the men attacked.

~~ Momo was beginning to tire, and his fast glide was slowly turning into a plummet into the water. His eyelids were drooping, and there was no land in sight to land on. That's when he smelled something else familiar. He did a loop of sorts to lift himself higher into the air and watched until he saw who he was hoping to see. He screeched excitedly and flew directly onto the face of the boy on the glider, who twisted and dropped one hand off the glider. He grabbed Momo and put him on the back of the glider.

"Momo! Where did you come from? I thought you would be with the others." Aang said.

Momo made some strange noises, then pointed ahead of them.

"The others are that way?"

Momo nodded and jumped off the glider with renewed vigor, following the scent of the bison towards the horizon with Aang following close behind.


	7. The Story

~~ Sokka watched the sun start to set in the distance over the edge of the balloon. Toph lay sleeping next to him, and Mai sat across from them. She had her eyes closed, but Sokka could tell she wasn't sleeping. He spoke in a hushed tone, so as not to disturb the girl at his side.

"So how did you guys get this to work without firebending?" he asked.

There was no response from Mai, so Sokka sighed and settled back against the basket.

"Do you have any idea where we're going?" she asked after a few moments of silence.

"The Western Air Temple. It's not too far from here, and that's where we said we would meet no matter what. Maybe Aang and Zuko finally made it."

"And what if they're not there?"

"Then…I guess we go looking for them. It can't be too hard to find the Avatar right?"

"Tell that to Zuko." Mai turned around and stared off into the sunset as Sokka settled back and tried to sleep. "How'd you two end up in the Boiling Rock anyways?"

"Do you really want to know?" Sokka said as he sat up again.

"I guess. It's better than doing nothing…probably."

"Alright then Mai, have I got a story for you."

**3 Days Earlier**

~~ Appa was flying low over a field, which was a nice change of pace compared to the mountains the gang had been seeing for the past few hours. Sokka was at the reins, and he kept peeking over Appa's head to see below him, and peering above as well.

"Where the hell is this temple?" Toph suddenly exclaimed.

The others jumped and turned to her.

"The Air Nomads were a very secretive people Toph." Katara said. "They wouldn't just leave their temple in the middle of a field. They'd hide it, so only airbenders could reach it."

Toph sighed and fell back onto the saddle, landing on the sleeping Momo. He screeched and jumped into the air, flying into place beside Appa.

"Sorry Momo." Toph yawned as she settled down to sleep herself.

Appa suddenly roared and veered downwards past a cliff. The group screamed as the bison plummeted. Toph was having the hardest time as she struggled to keep a hold on the edge of the saddle. Finally, he evened out, and once Suki had helped Toph back into the saddle, they took a moment to examine their surroundings.

There were various buildings and temples hanging upside down, and for being several hundred years old, they were holding up remarkably well.

"What? What is it?" Toph asked.

"We found the temple." Katara said breathlessly.

Sokka set Appa down on a platform that jutted out from the rest of the structures. The four teens climbed down from the bison and began exploring their temporary home.

~~ Sokka and Suki had gone down the right hallway and found a long stretch of empty rooms. The rooms were all identical, and Sokka was exploring one where the ceiling had almost completely collapsed when his girlfriend called out to him.

"Sokka! I think I found our room!"

Sokka went to see what she had found, and his jaw dropped. The room looked like it used to be two separate rooms, but the wall had long since disappeared. There was also a tree growing out of the outside wall, and it had taken out a section of it to poke its branches into the room. Suki went over and held one of them.

"I love this tree. It's like it's trying to prove that it can grow in any environment."

"I don't care where we sleep Suki. As long as I'm with you." Sokka said. He took the warrior's hands and leaned in to kiss her when a voice interrupted them.

"Ugh. Could you be any more cheesy?" Toph groaned.

Sokka sighed and Suki smiled as she let go of his hands. Toph wandered into the room and felt the tree.

"Wow, is there a tree in here?" she asked.

"Yep. Coming right through the wall." Suki replied.

"That's cool." Toph said, then after realizing how awestruck she sounded, she composed herself. "I mean, yeah. That's cool I guess. Um…I'm gonna go see what Katara's doing."

"That's a good idea." Suki laughed.

Once she was gone, Suki got closer to Sokka and moved in face to face with him.

"Now, where were we?" she asked seductively.

~~ "You can skip this part Sokka." Mai said rolling her eyes.

"Ok ok. I just thought you'd want to hear the entire story, but if you want to skip some important details then fine. Ok so after a little while-"

~~ Night had fallen, and each of them had retired to their respective rooms. Toph and Katara were on one end of the temple, Sokka and Suki shared the room with the tree in it. Sokka was in a light sleep, while Suki dozed comfortably with her head on his chest. A noise woke him up, and he looked around to see if it came from anywhere nearby. Deciding to venture out, he lifted Suki's head and placed it gently on his blanket. He got his sword and boomerang and readied them for battle, slowly peeking his head around the corner of the room.

His hands shook a bit as he slowly peeked into each room, finally reaching the front area where Appa was sleeping soundly. He relaxed a bit, as the bison would have been at least awake if he had heard a sound. He was about to head back to his room when he saw something in the corner of his eye that made him do a double take. What appeared to be a man dressed completely in black and wearing a white mask was perched on a ledge high above him. He was there for a fraction of a second, but when Sokka blinked, he was gone.

He rubbed his eyes, and the ledge remained bare. Sokka shrugged his shoulders and headed back to his room, chalking up the vision to lack of sleep in the past couple of days. He laid down next to Suki again and went back to sleep.

~~ "So you weren't at all suspicious of a masked figure up in a temple that supposedly only Air Benders can access?" Mai asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well like I said, I just thought I was seeing things. If I knew then what I know now I would have woke everyone up and gotten us out of there then. But…I didn't think anything of it."

Next to him, Toph yawned and sat up in the basket. She felt what she was sitting on and remembered the balloon.

"So we're still not there yet?" she asked.

"Nope. I was telling Mai what happened at the Western Air Temple."

"Oh! Did you get to the part with the freaky ninja assassins?" Toph asked excitedly.

Sokka sighed and covered his face with his hands.

"Not yet. I was getting there."

"Oh ok. Go ahead."

Sokka inhaled and was about to continue when Toph cut him off.

"By the way Sokka, I meant to ask you a while ago, where's your fancy space sword?"

Sokka's face fell and he quickly patted himself down.

"My sword! I must have left it back at the prison! We have to turn around and-"

"Calm down." Mai said. She reached into her robe and pulled out Sokka's sword, handing it to the dumbstruck warrior. "Don't even think about hugging me or anything. I saw it lying on the ground and figured I owed you guys for all the trouble we put you through. Just keep telling your story."

"Well the next morning-" Sokka began, but once again, Toph butted in.

"Hold on Sokka. I think we should have some different perspective on this story." she said smugly. Not pausing to let him interject, she continued. "So where are we? Day two? Ok so the morning started pretty much the same as it always does."

**2 Days Earlier**

~~ Toph yawned as she approached the fire Katara had set up in the center room of the temple.

"Do I smell food?" she asked, sitting down across from Sokka and Suki.

"Yep. It's lunch." Katara replied.

"Lunch? Jeez I woke up early." Toph fell back onto the floor on her back as Katara rolled her eyes.

"So what's the plan?" Suki asked. "Are we just going to wait here for Aang and Zuko to show up?"

"There's not much else we can do." Katara replied. "Aang promised he'd be here in a day or two and I trust him."

"Of course you do. He's your boyfriend." Toph said, waving her hands around for emphasis.

Katara blushed and busied herself in the preparation of lunch.

"Hey leave her alone." Suki said. "I think it's cute."

"How about we don't talk about my sister's love life!" Sokka interjected. "I hate being the only guy in the group. Well, except for Toph."

Without sitting up, Toph smacked the ground and launched Sokka into the air, landing him on his chest. Suki giggled the whole time she was helping him up.

"Don't encourage her." Sokka mumbled. When her laughing continued, Sokka headed out of the room. "I'll leave you ladies to your girl talk." he grumbled.

~~ "Ok, now we have to switch back to my perspective." Sokka said. "I'm sure Mai doesn't want to hear a bunch of boring girly conversations. Um…not that she's not…girly…or um…"

"Just tell the story." Mai replied.

~~ Sokka wandered outside and sat on the edge of the temple, hanging his feet over the edge. He watched Momo circle around Appa's head and the bison's futile attempts to catch him in his mouth. He took out his boomerang and tossed it halfheartedly, not even looking up to catch it. He repeated this several times until the boomerang didn't come back. Looking up, he couldn't see it anywhere close by. That's when he saw him again. The masked figure had returned, and he held Sokka's boomerang in his left hand. Sokka tried to call out to the others, but no sound came out. The figure held up a finger to his covered mouth and tossed the boomerang back to Sokka, and it hit him in the side of the head.

He awoke to see Suki and Katara peering at him from above.

"Sokka are you ok?" Suki asked as she helped him up.

Sokka groaned in response and rubbed the growing bruise near his temple.

"Yeah I'm fine. Hey wait!" He looked up to the spot where the masked man had stood, but once again, he was gone.

"What are you looking at?" Katara asked as she and Suki stared at the ledge as well.

"There was a guy up there! He caught my boomerang and threw it at me! He had a mask and he was there last night too!"

The girls looked at him and Toph spoke up from behind him.

"Are you sure that boomerang didn't knock something loose up there?"

"I swear there was someone up there!" Sokka insisted, but Suki put her arm around him and led him back into the main room.

"It's ok Sokka I believe you. Let's go get you some food."

~~ "The rest of the day went by pretty normally." Sokka continued. "But the next day was when things started go bad."

Suddenly, the balloon lurched forward and launched the teens out of its basket. Sokka and Mai tumbled on the ground and stopped just before falling off of a cliff. Except for Toph that is. She was clutching the basket for dear life, and it had kept going, right off the cliff. The balloon itself had broken off from the basket and was drifting away.

Sokka cried out and moved to the ledge to reach Toph, but Mai grabbed his arm.

"You're not going to help her by dying." she said.

Sokka was forced to watch the basket fall out of sight. He was forced to watch Toph fall to her death.


	8. Reunion

~~ Sokka watched the basket until it had fallen completely out of sight. Mai rose from the ground next to him and wiped off the dirt from her knees, walking towards the wreckage of her balloon.

"So how are we going to get down there now?" she asked.

Sokka, still in shock over what he had just seen, slowly rose to his feet.

"Toph just plummeted off a cliff. You don't even wait ten seconds to move on?"

"I didn't mourn my uncle when he died. You really thing I'm going to feel bad for some girl I barely know?"

Sokka's rage began to rise to a boil, and he was about to start shouting at Mai before a voice from below them rang out through the canyon.

"Guys! I think I found the temple!"

Sokka's heart lifted as he ran to the edge of the cliff.

"Toph, is that you?" he asked excitedly.

"No Sokka it's Azula. Of course it's me! Get down here!"

A stone elevator of sorts rose up the face of the cliff and Sokka climbed on board, offering his hand to Mai.

"Really? This is how we're getting down there?"

"You have a better idea?" Sokka replied.

Mai said nothing and stepped onto the platform next to him. Sokka called down to Toph and they descended into the fog below.

~~ Katara ducked as Zuko spun a circle of flames above them. Several of the men were blinded and fell to the ground screaming. Katara delivered a swift punch to another man's chest and he stumbled back. She pulled his sword off his belt, sheath and all, and struck him across the face with it, causing him to fall to the ground. She managed to take out three more guards with the sheathed weapon, but when she turned to check Zuko's progress, over a dozen of the men were lying on the ground.

"Not bad." Katara said as she tossed the weapon back to its unconscious owner.

"You weren't to bad yourself. Now let's get out of here. Is Appa nearby? Where are the others?"

"Um...well...Sokka and Toph have been captured, Appa's flying away with Suki who's probably still knocked out...and we still have no idea where Aang is."

A roar from above them cause them to look up at the sky. Appa's enormous form temporarily blocked out the sun as he came down for a landing, crushing some of the tents in the process. Katara smiled and embraced the bison's head. Zuko approached and was greeted with a long lick. Zuko spit Appa's saliva from his mouth and tried to readjust his hair, which had long since been undone from its signature bun.

"Oh I'm sorry Appa messed up your hair princess." Suki joked from the saddle.

"Suki, you came back!" Katara cried excitedly.

"Of course I did. It's a good thing too. It looks like you found Zuko after all."

Zuko and Katara climbed up beside Suki and they lifted off. As they flew along, Katara noticed the clearing where Appa had been staying when she was captured.

"Wait, touch down for a second! I need to check something."

Appa landed near the river and Katara's hopes were confirmed. Her water pouch was hanging by the strap onto a rock in the middle of the river. She waterbended a bubble around it and brought it over to her, filling it up before hooking it back onto her belt. She climbed back onto Appa and they were off to search for the others.

~~ Toph's earthen platform reached the level of the Western Air Temple. Many of the buildings that had once hung from the clifftop had been destroyed in the Fire Nation attack. The building they had taken cover it was lying in rubble, and various red banners hung around the area. Several camps were place around the once pristine courtyard, but strangely, they all seemed abandoned.

"It looks like the Fire Nation made themselves at home after we left. But why would they go through all the trouble of forcing us out and setting up camp down here, and then just leaving?" Sokka asked.

He approached one of the campsites and kicked at a stake, collapsing the tent.

"Maybe the freaky ninja assassins got to them!" Toph exclaimed while punching the air.

Suddenly Sokka remembered he was filling Mai in on what had happened to them. The three teens arranged themselves around their campfire which looked like it hadn't been touched since they left. Sokka got the blaze started with some tinder he had nearby, and they settled in.

"So...where did I leave off?"

"You had just attacked yourself with your own boomerang." Mai replied while leaning on her hand.

"Hey! I was viciously attacked!"

"Yeah sure you were tough guy." Toph said calmly as she practiced her earthbending form a few feet away from them.

"So as I was saying." Sokka continued through gritted teeth. "Suki helped me into the other room and I kind of fell asleep."

**The Previous Day**

~~ Sokka woke up with Suki's arm draped around him. He smiled and gently crawled away from her so as not to wake her. He walked outside to see the early morning sunlight was beginning to stream down into the canyon. He walked into the large main room of the temple and saw Toph sprawled out on the floor snoring loudly. He noticed his sister was out near Appa, stroking the bison's fur while Momo slept peacefully on his head. Sokka walked towards Katara and cleared his throat, causing Momo to leap into the air and dart behind Appa.

"Sorry Momo." Sokka chuckled. Katara turned to her brother and they traded the traditional pleasantries. Brother sat next to sister and there was silence for a few minutes before Sokka brought up a topic of discussion. "So...are you ok? Like with the whole Aang thing? I mean...he hasn't shown up yet and we're all worried but you must be-"

"Sokka please." Katara said with a smile. "I know you're trying to make me feel better but you're horrible at it. I appreciate the thought though."

Sokka scowled and tried to redeem himself. "Katara, I'm your big brother. It's my job to make you feel better. Make sure you're prepared for the world."

Katara laughed, rather loudly at that, causing Momo to once again dart behind Appa. "Sokka, I'm not a little girl anymore. I'm pretty sure I'm as ready for the world as I'm ever going to be."

"I know you're not a little girl. But I'll always think of you as my little sister. Even when you're all grown up and married to Aang." They both smiled at each other and embraced for a short time before Toph quickly getting to her feet turned them around.

"I'm sorry if we were hugging too loud Toph." Katara said.

"Shut up." Toph said quickly.

Katara was taken aback, and she quickly stepped towards the earthbender. "Excuse me? You can't tell me to-"

Toph covered her mouth with her hand just as Katara was within arms reach.

"I can hear people coming. I can feel footsteps up above us."

There was silence, then a scream from the other side of the temple.

"Suki!" Sokka cried. He jumped up and bolted towards the the hallway that connected the rooms, but he was cut off by the familar masked face that had held his boomerang. He stepped slowly back into the room as more of the figures entered, surrounding the three teens. Sokka realized his weapons were still in his room with the rest of his things, instead readying his fists. Katara uncorked her water pouch and Toph pulled a few loose slabs from around the room.

The assailants all seemed to attack at once, and Sokka ducked under one, getting him in a chokehold. He was swiftly elbowed in the stomach and he stumbled backwards into three others.

Katara smacked two of them away with a water whip before being tripped by a third. As he held her arms, the two she had knocked down came back towards her, but were repelled by twin kicks to the gut. She brought her feet down on those of her captor and was released, rolling away from the fray to widen her attack range.

Toph was holding her own quite well, managing to send two men off the edge of the temple. She threw some more stone tiles at several others, eventually taking out half a dozen of them. An expertly tossed net finally found its mark and she was forced into a fetal position and slid into a wall nearby.

"Sokka! Behind you!" she called out before being gathered up by a group of the attackers.

Sokka ducked just in time to avoid a blade, which slashed the chest of the man he was fighting. He turned to see them carrying Toph away and went after her, but a swift punch to the kidney brought him careening to the ground. His head was jerked roughly up and a sword was placed at his throat. For the first time, he heard one of them talk, as he whispered into his ear.

"The Fire Lord didn't say he needed all of you."

Sokka squeezed his eyes shut and prepared for the end, when his own boomerang struck the man in the temple. Dazed, he dropped his guard long enough for Sokka to shove away from him. He turned to see Suki helping Toph out of the net, the men who had been carrying her lying around unconscious.

"Catch!" she shouted to Sokka as she tossed him his weapons.

He obliged, unsheathing his sword to better defend himself. Suki threw Toph's net at the men backing Katara into a corner, managing to capture three of them into the tightly packed space. Katara then blasted the other man with a concentrated stream of water that sent him over the edge. Sokka bashed one of them in the back of the head with the hilt of his sword, leaving only one to stand against the four teens. As a trained fighter, he was keeping his fear bottled up, but Toph was an expert at picking up on things people didn't want her to.

"What's the matter big boy? Do us kids scare you?" she said with a grin.

"I swear she looks evil when she does that." Sokka muttered to Suki.

The man stepped quickly towards the group, and was frozen to the ground by Katara. When he stumbled and fell to his hands and knees, Toph pulled his upper appendages into a soft spot in the floor. Sokka placed the tip of his ebony colored blade at the throat of the man while Suki pulled off his mask, revealing a pale, but strangely young looking man.

"Who sent you?" Sokka exclaimed.

When he was met with no response, Toph opened a hole in the floor just big enough for his upper body. Seeing the seemingly bottomless pit below him, he lost his composure, begging for them to pull him back up. Once the hole was sealed, he finally agreed to tell them where he was from.

~~ "So it turns out that he was part of a group that was kind of like the Dai Li of the Fire Nation." Sokka continued as he tended the fire.

"The Ren Shu." Mai stated. Sokka looked up surprised.

"Yes. Um...how did you know?"

"I know of their existence." Mai continued. Her usual droll tone had hints of something else...awe? "Fire Lord Ozai had heard about the Dai Li through rumors from the Earth Kingdom and wanted to try it on his own. He gathered the best warriors in his kingdom and had them trained even further, basing their fighting moves off the Dai Li themselves. The organization remained underground for a while until Ozai heard rumors that a few of them were planning to overthrow him, and he had them exiled. I guess Azula's father has gotten their services back."

"But that still doesn't explain why all of them cleared out of the temple.

A loud noise in the distance got all of their attention. The three of them ran outside into the night air to look for the cause of the sound. As it got closer, Toph was the first to recognize it.

"There's no way..." she mumbled to herself. "It's Appa!"

Sure enough, the familiar roar echoed through the canyon, and then the bison broke through the fog and landed on a platform nearby. Toph and Sokka watched as Katara and Suki leapt from the saddle, and the four of them embraced. Suddenly, Katara jumped back and pointed at Mai, who was leaning against the wall staring at her nails.

"What's she doing here?"

"Mai?" The other voice belonged to Zuko, who jumped off the saddle as well. "How did you..."

"Mai helped us escape from the Boiling Rock...again." Sokka said. "It's because of her we made it this far."

"Is that true Mai?" Zuko asked as he approached her. Mai looked down in response, a faint blush showing on her pale cheeks. Zuko pushed her chin up and leaned in to kiss her when Toph's giggle made them stop. Suki punched Toph's arm and Toph retaliated, sending Suki to the ground. The group broke into laughter as they pushed each other and leapt around the former temple. A sudden gust of wind silenced everyone as they looked to the source. Aang retracted his glider as Momo landed on his shoulder.

"Guys. We have to go. Now."


	9. Life & Death

**The Previous Day**

~~ After the man had told them everything they needed to know, Toph stomped her foot, freeing him from the stone tiles.

"Get out of here." Sokka said with a scowl. "And if we ever see you here again, we'll make sure we take care of you for good."

As the man started to back towards a nearby ledge, he happened to glance up at the sky and smirked himself. He pointed up, then closed his eyes as he fell backwards into the mist. The teens ran up to the ledge to watch him vanish, then Suki looked up.

"Um, guys? I think we have something more to be worried about."

The sky was dotted with red as about a dozen war balloons approached the Western Air Temple. It wasn't long before huge fireballs started to rain down from above, smashing into the ancient stone structures. A particularly large one hit a hanging tower in just the right spot, and it came free of the ceiling, plummeting downwards and smashing on impact.

"Guys! Get to Appa! We need to move now!" Sokka shouted amidst the chaos.

The others agreed, and as they headed towards the spot where Appa had been sleeping only moments before, another fireball careened down for them. Toph managed to raise a wall of earth just in time, which shattered on impact. The four of them were knocked back by the shockwave, Suki almost plummeting off the edge. She quickly scrambled to her feet and hurried back to the others before realizing that Appa and Momo were nowhere to be found.

"Sokka, what do we do now?" Toph asked in an unusually quiet tone.

Sokka quickly scanned the area, looking for anything that could help them, before they realized that one of the balloons had touched down, letting half a dozen soldiers into the temple. Sokka drew his sword and started to head towards them, but Katara grabbed his arm.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"I'm going to distract them. Toph, do you still have that bison whistle?" Sokka asked.

Toph searched her pockets before withdrawing the Appa shaped whistle she had stolen from the bounty hunter.

"Good. The three of you get to the other side of the temple and use it. I'll meet up with you guys later."

"Sokka, that's exactly what Aang said, and we haven't seen him in days!" Katara cried.

Sokka turned and hugged his sister, and then Toph, who blushed at the contact. He got to Suki, who threw her arms around him. When she let go, he slowly backed away before turning to charge towards the soldiers, who were rapidly growing in number. As the girls started to go, Suki stood in place. She clenched her fist and then ran to one of the unconscious Ren Shu agents, stealing his sword, then charging into battle behind her boyfriend.

"Suki, wait!" Katara called, but Toph stopped her.

"Katara, there's no time. We can get Appa and come back for them right after."

Against her better judgement, Katara followed Toph down a hallway of the temple.

~~ Meanwhile, Sokka had begun to clash steel with the Fire Nation soldiers. He blocked a swipe and kicked one of them in the shin, taking him out with a blow to the neck. A swing flew past his ear, which he returned, slicing into the cheek flesh of his opponent. Suki suddenly jumped over his head, landing a kick to another man's stomach.

"Suki, what are you doing here?" Sokka exclaimed as he dodged a sword thrust and countered with his own.

"You really think I'd let you have all this fun on your own?" Suki replied with a grin.

She swept the legs out from four opponents, tossing a fifth over the edge of the temple. A fireball landed right in the middle of the brawl, sending several soldiers to their deaths and making Sokka fall backwards as well. Suki's quick reflexes saved him however, and she grabbed him with one hand. She tossed her sword into the chest of one soldier to better help Sokka, managing to pull him onto solid ground.

They exchanged quick glances of thanks before returning to the fray. They were so engrossed in fighting that they didn't notice the group of archers taking aim at them from above. They released their arrows, which sailed towards the two kids. Suki was the first to see them, calling out to Sokka, who grabbed a soldier to use as a shield. His plan was successful, but Suki had nothing to grab. She rolled out of harms way, but unfortunately, one arrow had fallen behind the others, and struck her shoulder when she got to her feet.

She wanted to cry out in pain, but no sound came out. Sokka saw her get it, which seemed to happen in slow motion. He tossed the soldier he was holding aside and ran to Suki's aide. He lifted her in his arms and bolted out of the battlefield, jumping over fallen soldiers and debris. Fireballs continued to fall around them as he ran, turning down the same hallway Katara and Toph had fled down earlier.

~~ Sokka was surprised to see Katara waiting for him.

"What are you guys doing? You should have been on Appa by now."

"Toph's working on the back entrance. It's blocked by a ton of debris. What happened?"

Katara approached Suki and examined the arrow stuck in her shoulder. An explosion from rather close-by, combined with the sound of voices and running feet stopped their conversation.

"I'll tell you later. Right now we need to get out of here."

The three of them made it into the small room with Toph and Katara pulled the heavy doors closed behind them. Sokka laid Suki in the corner while Katara kneeled next to her to work on her wound.

"What's going on?" Toph asked, stopping her work of removing the large rocks from the entryway. "Suki's hurt isn't she?"

A fireball hit the door, opening it an inch, which Toph immediately noticed. She ran over to it and pulled up a chunk of earth from below her feet, using it to brace the door. She dug her feet into the ground and prepared to hold back the attack.

**Present**

~~ Everyone was in shock to see Aang standing in front of them. Katara ran forward and embraced him, which Aang returned. They hugged for several seconds before pulling apart.

"Aang...you had us all so worried. I...we never thought we would see you again."

"I'm sorry I took so long getting here guys. I'm glad everyone made it though."

"What's wrong Aang? We just got here? Why do we have to leave so soon?" Suki asked.

"They're coming back. The Fire Nation. They've been following all of us for a while."

"What?" Sokka exclaimed. "You've got to be kidding me! We just got back together and now they're going to try and break us up again!"

"I'm not going to let them. This time, we go together. No more splitting up." Aang said.

The whole time he was speaking, Katara had noticed something different about him. He was completely stone faced, even when he had been hugging Katara. Something had changed about him.

"Alright you heard the Avatar. Everyone back on the bison!" Sokka called.

Once all seven of them, eight including Momo, were safely on Appa's back, Aang gave a quick yip yip, and they were off. Aang rubbed Appa's head softly, getting a roar of approval.

"I missed you too buddy." he replied quietly.

Once they were out of the valley, everyone but Aang turned to see the night sky filled with the familiar Fire Nation emblem. There was something different about one balloon though. They had all seen the blimps before, but this one was enormous, and emblazoned with even more red and gold then the others.

"It's my father." Zuko said.

Everyone stared at him in amazement.

"You can't be serious." Katara said.

"He found me at that camp we were in. Promised that next time we met, he would kill me."

"Let's get 'em then!" Toph exclaimed. "I'm itching for a fight!"

"I agree." Mai replied, which stunned everyone. "Look, I'm not usually one to pick fights with the Fire Lord, but when someone threatens my man, I have to threaten back."

She gave a subtle smirk that only Zuko could notice, which he returned.

"No. If anything this is Aang's fight."

Everyone turned their gaze to Aang, who turned to face the others.

"Guys...I know I have to fight the Fire Lord, but I don't think I can do it right this second. I'm tired, I'm not exactly prepared, and Zuko's barely taught me any firebending. I'm going to lose these guys for a while and find a place where we can all rest for the night."

The others agreed, and Aang flew Appa closer to the ground so they would hopefully blend with the trees. After they had been flying long enough to lose sight of the Fire Nation fleet above them, they happened to find what looked like an abandoned campsite. There were four tents still standing and Toph, who was too tired to make her usually rock tent, silently climbed into one of them and was instantly asleep. The others split into couples and went into the remaining three tents. Aang and Katara in one, Zuko and Mai in another, and Sokka and Suki the the remaining one.

~~ Aang sat in the strangely large tent and crossed his legs in his traditional meditation stance. Katara climbed in after him and started looking around. She picked up a picture nearby of a young woman dressed in Fire Nation garb.

"So why do you think this place was abandoned Aang?" Katara asked.

"No idea. Lucky for us though."

There were a few minutes of silence before Katara sat down next to him.

"Aang, what happened to you while you were gone? You seem...different."

Aang sighed and dropped his stance.

"Katara...there was a family that helped me when I was on the run. It was just this little boy and his mom out in the forest."

"Tarin and Lynn? Yes Suki and I met her."

"Well...something happened."

**A few hours earlier**

~~ Aang flew back towards the forest, darting low between the trees. He scanned the the ground searching for any sign of Appa or his friends, because at this point Momo had lost his scent. It was then when he noticed the column of smoke rising ahead of him. He took a detour and his eyes widened when he saw the familiar cabin in flames. There was a group of about half a dozen firebenders in a circle around the home.

"Momo, stay back." he said, and the lemur screeched in response, flying off into the trees.

Aang started spinning around the cabin, stirring up a tornado that whipped up the flames until they were extinguished. Finally, Aang dropped, smashing his staff on the ground in front of the house, sending the firebenders flying into the nearby pond.

As they lay broken on the ground, Aang went over to a man lying near the smoldering remnants of the house. He was beaten and bruised, but he was alive, barely. The man coughed and opened his one eye that wasn't swollen shut.

"You're the Avatar. My boy couldn't stop talking about you after you left."

"So you're Tarin's dad?" Aang asked.

Cal nodded, and started to speak, wincing as he did.

"Please...you have to save my family. Lynn...Tarin...they took them. They're trying to find out where you are."

Aang clenched his fist.

"Which way did they go."

"North. Through the forest. Please Avatar, save my family."

Aang agreed, and as he got up, he looked down to see that Cal was gone.

"I will. I promise."

Aang extended his glider above his head and launched himself into the air, flying into the forest after the family. As it turns out, it didn't take him long to find them. There was a group of them that had stopped at a camp. He heard a scream and slammed down in the center of the camp, sending out a shockwave that scattered the tents and people alike. They got up and moved towards him, but Aang smacked two of them away with another gust.

He rose two earthen fists out of the ground that grabbed four more men, tossing them into the treetops, then slapping away a few more. One of the men grabbed Aang around the back and lifted him up, but Aang brought his foot into the man's stomach and flipped out of his grip. He then lifted the boiling water out of the kettle in the middle of the camp and spun around, scattering it around into the faces of the soldiers who screamed in agony. When there were only a few of them left, they all backed into the corner of the camp.

"Where are they?" Aang asked through gritted teeth.

Three of the soldiers dropped their weapons and ran off into the forest, leaving one man, who was wearing more elegant armor then the others, behind.

"So you're the one who's in charge here?"

The man gulped and nodded, clearly shaking.

"N-now I know what you're thinking Avatar. And we had no choice in the matter. She wasn't cooperating! We needed some leverage! If you really think about it this is more your fault then anyone else."

Aang cried out in rage and blasted the man with a gust of air. He went flying through the forest until he finally careened into a tree with a thunderous crack.

"Hello? Guys? Are you here?" Aang called out.

A weak voice called out from the wreckage of the tent. Aang lifted up the tent and found Lynn, sobbing on her knees.

"I took care of the Fire Nation. They won't be a problem anymore. What's wrong?"

"I told them I didn't know anything. They kept asking where you were. I told them I didn't know. They took Tarin. They took my baby..."

Aang's heart sank as he thought of the happy child who he had eaten breakfast with only a few days earlier. The woman in front of him broke down crying, unable to continue talking.

"Where is he? Where did they take him?"

Lynn couldn't speak clearly, but she managed to point to the large tent at the end of the camp that was somehow still standing. Aang burst in to see a man standing above something, holding a sack in his hand. The man turned to see Aang, staff at the ready.

"Oh...I'm sorry Avatar. The boy was here. You just...missed him."

Aang noticed small feet sticking out from under a sheet that was behind the man. Aang instantly saw red, cracking the man's skull with his staff. He went down crying out in pain and clutching his bleeding head. Aang went down next to the sheet, grabbing the corner and pulling it back a bit and closing his eyes, afraid to see what was under it. When he opened them, he saw his fear come true. He got up and stumbled out of the tent, falling to his hands and knees in the dirt in tears.

He gasped for breath, wiping his nose on his sleeve and squeezing his eyes shut, trying to block out the tears and erase the memory from his mind. He rose to his feet and stumbled towards the tent where Lynn was crouched.

"Is my son..."

Aang tried desperately to hold back his tears.

"I'm...so sorry..."

The woman started sobbing, throwing her arms around Aang. As Aang felt his shoulder get damp from her tears, he couldn't control himself, crying as well. After a little while, footsteps from behind them made Aang pull away and turn around. He leapt into the air, coming down and causing yet another shockwave that spun the firebender around. He kept using gusts of wind to spin him like a top until finally, he struck him in the got that blasted him into the sky until he was a tiny speck. Once he had calmed down, he fell to his knees next to Lynn.

"If there's anything I can do to help you..."

Lynn sniffled and rose to her feet, helping Aang as well.

"No. No there's nothing. I have a sister that lives in Ba Sing Se. I can live with her until I get things together."

Tears were still streaming down her face as she talked, and Aang couldn't help feeling that he had to help her.

"Are you sure? I feel like this is...this is my fault."

"No Aang. There's nothing you could have done to prevent this. Please don't blame yourself."

He knew that she was only saying this to help him feel better, because if he hadn't come by her cabin, then Cal and Tarin would still be alive. She assured him that she would be fine, and after much convincing, Aang finally took off, looking back as Lynn walked into the large tent where her son was lying. He turned away and focused, continuing his search for the others as Momo joined up with him again.

~~ Katara was crying as well by the time Aang had finished his story.

"My god...that little boy was so nice...he wasn't involved in any of this."

"You have no idea how hard it was for me to come back to you guys after that." Aang said. "If the Fire Nation can do that to a kid, then imagine what they would do if they caught you guys. What they have done in the past."

Katara took Aang's hands and leaned in close to him.

"Aang don't you dare leave us again. We couldn't...I mean I couldn't take it again. When you were in the Spirit World all that time I was worried sick. Aang I love you. We all do. We're in it for the long haul now, even Mai."

"Yeah I noticed she was here. How did that happen?"

"We got back only a little bit before you did. We're just as clueless as you are."

They laughed a little bit, then looked into each others eyes for a bit. Their faces got closer, until finally, their lips met. The moment was perfect, and for a few minutes, everything else left their minds as their bodies seemed to become one. Aang's hand happen to fall on her leg while they were kissing, and put her hand on top of it, bringing it further up. Aang's heart was beating faster and faster in his chest, until a gasp made them break apart. They turned to see the tent flap close, and Katara got up to check who it was. She exited the tent to see Suki walking towards her and Sokka's tent.

"Suki? What were you doing?"

Suki's face was absolutely scarlet.

"I'm so sorry I interrupted you guys. I just wanted to talk to you about Sokka."

"Sokka? Why what's wrong?"

"It's nothing big. I'm sure you and Aang have a lot to catch up on."

"Suki, Aang won't mind waiting a few minutes. We can chat for a little while."

Aang was listening at the entrance of the tent and groaned, falling back onto the mat. Seconds after he had fallen backwards, he was asleep.

~~ High above the woods, a soldier approached the Fire Lord, who was standing on the balcony of his enormous blimp.

"Sir it appears we've lost them."

"I saw that. Do you have any idea where they went?"

"Well there were reports that he dipped down into the forest itself."

"Get rid of it then."

"Excuse me sir?"

"Get rid of the forest. Burn it to the ground. I don't care how much it costs I want to find my son and the Avatar!"

The Fire Lord's voice was quickly rising, and the soldier nodded, running down into the bowels of the ship. He smirked as he realized that his plans would soon come to fruition.


	10. Plummeting

~~ The girls went out into the woods a few yards away from the tents to speak in private.

"What's going on Suki? Is something wrong with Sokka?" Katara asked.

"Well no," the other girl replied. "Not exactly. It's just that ever since the whole group got back together I've been noticing something different with him. He's not as...affectionate with me as he used to be."

As she explained what was going on, Katara noticed the warrior becoming quieter, very unlike her usual peppy self. She put her hand on the older girl's shoulder and smiled, which did comfort her, even if a little bit. She took a deep breath and spoke up again.

"I think Sokka's in love with Toph."

Katara stared at Suki for a second before bursting out laughing. She covered her mouth quickly to avoid waking the others.

"You think that he's in love with Toph? Come on Suki, you know he only has eyes for you! You're the only girl he ever talks about!"

"I thought you would react like that." Suki said, becoming quiet once again. "I see the way he's looked at her. And they've had their moments in the past. What about that time I saved Toph from drowning at the Serpent's Pass and she nearly kissed me, thinking I was Sokka?"

"Oh I'm sure Toph has a little bit of a crush on my brother, but I mean she's a little young for him isn't she?"

"Katara, you're not really listening to me! I'm worried! I think that they might-" Suki suddenly stopped, and Katara stared at her for a second.

"Suki? What's wrong?"

"Do you hear that?"

The waterbender listened before the sound of burning and crackling wood reached her ears.

"Oh no. They're burning down the whole forest!" she exclaimed as they bolted back to the others. "Everyone wake up! We have to move now!"

Aang jumped up so quickly that his tent burst around him. The others groggily climbed out from under their tent flaps.

"What's going on?" Sokka asked with a yawn. "What's everybody doing up?"

"The Fire Nation are burning down this whole forest to get to us!" Suki exclaimed. "There's no time for sleep!"

"There's never any time for sleep." Toph grumbled as the others gathered their things and climbed on Appa's back.

Once they were in the air, they realized how close they had come to death as the blimps blasted fire down upon the trees. There was a trail of scorched earth behind them, and the camp was almost out of sight when the tents were caught up in the blaze. Momo poked his head out from the satchel at Appa's side and looked around before going back down to sleep. Aang turned to the others.

"You guys get some sleep. I'll try to lose them."

"Aang, you realize you can't run forever right?" Zuko asked as the others fashioned their bags into makeshift pillows.

"I know. I also know that I can't fight the Fire Lord with no energy. I don't know about you guys but I haven't slept in a couple of days."

"Well I have." Sokka said as he crawled up next to Aang. "You get some sleep Aang. I know how to fly this thing." He patted Appa's head as he said this, and the bison shook his head, causing Sokka to hold the reins for dear life. "See? Nothing to it!"

Aang smiled as he crawled into the saddle next to Katara, who put her arm around him and her head on his neck. He hadn't been this happy in a long time.

~~ It wasn't too long before Aang was woken up by the motion of the saddle. He sat up and ducked again just in time to avoid a fireball, which nearly hit Sokka as well.

"Sokka, how long has this been going on?" Aang shouted as the others woke up as well.

"Well, Appa started to dip a little while ago, so the firebenders kind of caught up with us."

Appa cried out in pain as a large fireball made contact with his back. Suki gasped and backed away as the corner of the saddle went up. It was put out with a splash from Katara's hip pouch, but two more fireballs hit the bison and the saddle simultaneously. One of the straps burned quickly, so quickly in fact, that no one noticed it until it snapped.

There were more gasps from the gang as the saddle suddenly shifted to the right. Toph was especially terrified. Being on Appa was one thing, but being on him while the only thing keeping you from plummeting to your death was being burned away? That was another thing entirely.

"Sokka keep Appa awake! I'll try to distract them!" Aang was trying to shout over the sound of flames crackling and explosions happening all around them.

He retrieved his glider and bent down to give Katara a quick peck on the lips before leaping over the side of the saddle. He plummeted down towards the trees before extending the wings from the staff, making an arch that just barely touched the treetops. He manipulated the air below him to push himself upwards, moving at breakneck speed and piercing one of the war balloons flanking the blimps.

Moving quicker, he skimmed the front decks of the blimps, slicing the metal with concentrated air currents. The firebenders on the front of the half dozen blimps all plummeted below, and cut down on the fire being blasted at the others. Then, Aang approached the center balloon, where the deck was oddly empty. An enormous fireball suddenly registered in the corner of his eye and Aang spun to avoid it. The flames managed to lick the sensitive wings, which quickly burnt away. As he lost control of his glider and flew towards the earth, he tried to steer towards a softer surface, which he managed to find on one of the blimps, sliding towards the edge, but grabbing a nearby ladder. He sighed as he watched his staff fall out of sight.

~~ Katara released a breath that she had been holding in as she saw Aang catch himself on the blimp. Then noticed more men climbing on each of the blimps in turn. More fireballs pelted them, twice as many as before. Sokka had noticed Toph clutching the side of the saddle for dear life, her breathing fast and erratic. She was definitely out of her element, and she was trying hard to hold back her tears. He reached over and lightly touched the young girl's hand, which she grabbed and squeezed tightly in response.

The fireballs were getting uncomfortably close, even burning off some of Appa's fur as it flew by. Katara got into a kneeling position on the unstable saddle and readied some of her water, using it as a shield to block some of the attacks. Each fireball was reduced to steam against the bubble, but each one also knocked Katara off her balance. Her defenses were starting to weaken, so Zuko got up next to her, using fireballs of his own to cancel out the other ones.

That's when one of them slipped by the gang, catching the only remaining strap on Appa's left side. Like before, no one seemed to notice it at first, then Toph felt the heat emanating from beside her.

"Guys, I think we might have a problem." she shouted over the commotion, but it was far too late.

The strap broke, and what little weight still remained on the right side quickly threw it off balance. It slipped off, and the gang screamed as they tried desperately to hold on. Momo shrieked and flew to the other side, trying to pull the saddle in the other direction, but it was too little too late. Mai and Suki managed to grab a hold of Appa's fur, Suki trying to grab anyone she could, but failing. The saddle fell to the forest floor below, with Katara, Zuko, and Toph still clinging for dear life.

Sokka pulled on Appa's reins and the bison roared as he changed directions. They were starting to go down when a giant fireball was fired from the central blimp. It seemed to follow the bison wherever he went, and Appa managed to turn around before it struck him, taking the full blast to his underside. The girls hung onto Appa's fur as long as they could, but when the fireball hit, they lost their grip, falling like the others. Appa finally closed his his eyes, his mouth hanging slightly open as he sunk like a stone. Sokka lost his grip on the reins and went flying off just like everyone else. Appa fell towards a nearby river, but Sokka wasn't having nearly the same luck. He looked behind him, seeing behind him that the protection of the forest was quickly being burned away.

~~ Aang managed to climb to the top of the blimp just as several firebenders climbed out of a hatch and started firing down on his friends. He charged towards them and jumped into the air, coming down and creating a shockwave that sent them flying. He saw the same thing happening on the other blimps as well, and there was now hundreds of fireballs flying towards Appa. Katara had created a bubble that was blocking a few of them, but she couldn't keep it up forever.

He jumped over to the next blimp in line, tackling one of the firebenders in the process. He delivered a swift kick to another's stomach and took a deep breath, blowing a huge gust at the others. He had dealt with two blimps, but four more still remained, and he knew he was running out of time. As he took care of the third group of firebenders, he saw Katara's bubble give out and Appa's saddle start to slide. He gasped and nearly jumped over to Appa, but realized that he didn't have his glider anymore. They were too far to reach.

It almost seemed like he was paralyzed as he watched the saddle slide completely off. Two people, he couldn't tell who, grabbed Appa's back, but everyone else who was on the saddle fell. As another huge fireball flew towards them, Aang finally made his decision. The Fire Lord could wait a little longer. He ran to the back of the blimp, then, building up his strength, he ran with a burst of wind behind him. By the time he jumped off the edged, it was too late for him to notice that Appa had fallen as well, and Aang turned his body into a missile, shooting towards the first person within reach.

"Aang? What are you-" Sokka cried out as he was caught.

"Don't worry about it! Just hang on!"

Sokka felt a little strange about wrapping his arms around the smaller boy's neck, but he did, and he felt the wind whipping against his face as Aang seemed to go faster. They crashed through the treetops and Aang stirred up a pillow of air to catch them. As soon as Sokka's feet were on the ground, Aang jumped into the treeline again, scanning for any sign of the others.

~~ Mai had used one of her daggers to pierce the trunk of a tree, and Suki hung from her waist. She dropped and grabbed a nearby branch, following the pattern until she was on the ground again. Mai followed suit. Suki's emotions finally caught up with her and she fell against another tree, sliding to the ground.

"I can't believe this! We have no idea if the others are even still alive! The last thought I had of Sokka was that he might be thinking of cheating on me? What kind of girlfriend am I? After all he went through to save me from that awful prison-"

"I'm going to stop you there." Mai said, walking over to the other girl and kneeling beside her. "I'm not going to even try to comfort you. That's not what I do. All I'm going to say is that you shouldn't blame yourself for this stuff...I guess. That ponytail dork obviously likes you. Just appreciate what you have."

Suki smiled and moved to hug Mai, but she put up her hand to stop her.

"One thing at a time." she said, offering the same hand to help Suki to her feet.

"Thanks Mai."

A rustling in the nearby brush got their attention, and they turned to see Sokka burst out of the trees. Suki gasped when she saw him, embracing him instantly. Sokka returned it.

"Sokka, I want you to know that-"

"I know Suki. I love you too." Sokka said before she could even utter the words.

Their lips came together and Suki leaned against a tree to support herself and their hands caressed each other's backs. They finally broke apart when Mai cleared her throat.

"I think we have some bigger things to worry about right now." she stated plainly.

They blushed and after some minor 'adjusting' on Sokka's part, they headed deeper into the forest, following the sound of the river.

~~ It wasn't too hard to find the spot where the others landed. The saddle had left a large imprint in the forest, and the flames were getting dangerously close to them. Aang landed in the clearing that they had created and called out for anyone to hear him. Katara was kneeling next to Toph and Aang ran over to greet them. Zuko was gathering supplies from the saddle.

"Guys! I'm so glad you're alright!" Aang said as he ran to Katara.

"I'm glad you're okay too Aang, but I'm a little busy right now." Katara replied.

Toph's teeth were clenched in pain as Katara used a small pool of water to surround her ankle, which was twisted at an odd angle.

"Toph was the only one who was hurt when we landed." Katara continued. "Her foot caught on a branch as we were coming down, but the saddle cushioned most of the fall." She dissipated the water around Toph's ankle and grabbed it with both hands. "Alright Toph, this is going to hurt a little."

"Please Katara, I'm a big girl. I think I can handAHHHHHHHH!" Toph shrieked as Katara snapped her ankle back into place. She took quick, shallow breaths before finally composing herself. "S-see? I'm fine!"

Katara laughed and helped Toph back to her feet. Zuko had just finished gathering what he could from the saddlebags as well.

"I think we should get to higher ground. Those blimps are getting awfully close." he said.

The others agreed and they headed in the opposite direction.

~~ Sokka was the first one out of the woods, coming up on the river they had been following by ear. He stopped at the bank and was soon joined by Mai and Suki.

"No..." Sokka muttered.

Even Mai was unprepared for what they saw. Lying in the riverbed, was Appa. The bison was lying motionless on his side, various burn marks covering his once snow white fur, the most notable being the enormous one that covered nearly his entire underside. Sokka waded into the river which was ice cold and up to his waist. He got up to Appa's head and rubbed his forehead, eliciting no response from the giant creature. Sokka bit his lip and was soon joined by Suki.

"Sokka, I don't think he-"

"Suki please. I know. I just...he's always been there for us. I want to try and be there for him for once."

After a few moments, Mai was joined at the bank by the others. Aang's eyes were instantly drawn to Appa, and he jumped onto his side that was sticking out of the water.

"Appa? Come on boy...wake up!" Aang shook him as best as he could, when he noticed Momo curled up by Appa's tail. The lemur was whimpering, and it almost sounded like he was crying. He crawled up to Aang's side and curled up in a ball next to him, his ears drooping. "Katara! You can help him right? There's plenty of water around here!"

Katara looked at him with tear filled eyes and simply shook her head. Aang jumped off Appa's side and began pushing him.

"Aang, what are you doing?" Zuko asked.

"I want to get him out of the water. Appa hates the water."

Katara stood next to Aang and took his hand. The young Avatar buried his face in Appa's fur and sobbed, releasing days of pent up emotion. After a short time, he backed up and wiped his eyes.

"Let's get him on dry land." Katara said in a voice that was almost a whisper.

Aang nodded, and they made a sort of wave motion with their waterbending that managed to push Appa's body onto the other side of the bank. Then, with Toph's help, he made a grave big enough for the enormous bison and shifted the dirt enough to get his body inside, sealing it above him.

"If there was a way I could make sure you stayed in the sky forever, I would make it happen buddy." Aang said.

The others offered their words of comfort, but Aang was completely numb to their sympathy. The only ones that truly made him feel better were Katara and Momo, who had sat by his friend the whole time he was buried. Toph stomped on the ground and shifted the earth underneath her, raising an incredibly realistic statue of Appa made from dirt and stones. Katara coated it in water and Zuko blasted it with fire, rapidly drying it and hardening it from the elements.

"We should say something." Toph said quietly once her sculpture was complete.

They looked at Aang, who was staring at the life-size replica of his companion, then to Sokka, who cleared his throat in response.

"Appa...what can you say about him? He was always ready to lend a helping...paw to a friend in need. Always ready to get us out of a jam, carry our stuff, and bring us around all over the world, all without ever expecting anything in return. He was a loyal companion and friend, and he will be sorely missed."

"That was beatiful Sokka." Suki said as she put her head on his shoulder.

A familiar sound caught their attention, and they turned to see the forest fire catching up with them.

"Wow, they are really not letting up on that are they?" Sokka said as they started backing away.

"Aang, we need to go." Katara said as the others started moving towards a rocky outcropping.

"I'm ready." Aang mumbled.

"What?" Katara asked, getting closer.

"I'm ready to fight the Fire Lord. I'm not going to let anyone else get hurt."

Katara smiled and took Aang's hand, bringing him to regroup with the others.


End file.
